Purple Mage
by The Great Dodecahedron
Summary: Black mage, white mage, red mage... purple mage. Twilight Sparkle and her friends visit the world of the original Final Fantasy. The Warriors of Light live in a fairly serious world, so the ponies turn quite a few things upside down.
1. Game Start

PURPLE MAGE

Good stupid fun. Intellectual properties of Hasbro and Square Enix (to which I lay no claim) appear in this story and go on ludicrous adventures together. The names of the Warriors of Light are taken from the Final Fantasy I · II · III novelization where possible, instruction manuals otherwise, or simply made up when none are available.

* * *

"See? See? See?!" Pinkie Pie was beside herself with excitement. Twilight Sparkle thought that if Pinkie bounced around any faster, it would look like she really was beside herself.

"I'm really quite impressed!" Twilight told her. "How did you come up with this idea?"

"Welllll-" Pinkie took a deep breath.

Twilight knew it when she saw it. "Okay, okay, let's not be hasty-"

The singing began. Twilight hung her head.

_My mama always told me_  
_There's two sides to every story-_  
_There's two sides to a lot of things:_  
_Leaves and paper, doors and rings-_

"Rings?" Twilight wondered.

_Inside and an outside, silly-_  
_You can't mix those willy nilly_

_So you know just the other day_  
_Sunset Shimmer went away_  
_Stole your crown so you went with her_  
_Talked to humans in a mirror!_

_What a story! What a tale!_  
_Mirrors have two sides as well!_

Seeing that Pinkie was finished, Twilight raised a hoof. "That last line didn't really rhyme, you know. And you ended it really abruptly..."

Pinkie shrugged. "I had to end the song early. I'm thirsty!" She produced a juice box and took a deep swig.

Twilight looked around while her friend drank. Earlier that day, Pinkie had snuck into the room in Canterlot containing the magic mirror which had sent Twilight into a world full of humans. When she pried the glass out of the horseshoe-shaped frame and set it on a table, it turned out that the back side was a fully-silvered mirror as well.

Twilight eyed the mirror. If it was double-sided... "I wonder if there's a portal on this side of the mirror, too?"

"Oh, that's easy," Pinkie Pie told her, spitting out her straw. She grabbed a broom that had been lying against the wall.

"Wath thith." Holding it in her teeth, she used the broom to poke at the mirror. Instead of hitting the glass, it passed through. She wiggled it around and pulled it back out. Caught in the bristles were decaying leaves and twigs- things, Twilight remembered, which weren't present around the portal at Canterlot High School.

"A second gate to another world," Twilight breathed. "That's amazing, Pinkie. We've got to tell Princess Celestia right away!"

There was a dainty "ptooi!" and the broom clattered back against the wall.

Twilight frowned as she realized. "Does this mean I have to go through again?"

Pinkie bounced up and down. "Ooh, ooh, I wanna go!"

Twilight's frown gave way to resignation. "This means I have to go through again."

* * *

On the plains northwest of Cornelia walked a party of five. Three were wearing robes and one was wearing a tattered dress, the hem of which was brushing against the grass.

The fifth party member walked ahead of the others. A monk, he wore an immaculate martial arts uniform, and he was arguing with the others.

"I understand we serve the same mission," he said, "but surely you've seen how difficult it is to work together! I think we should go our separate ways for a while and reconvene after we've each made some progress. My journey would be easier and shorter without my having to protect a group of mages all the time."

"And who'll 'protect' us then?" a slouching man in a blue robe asked peevishly. His broad-brimmed pointy hat hid his face, but an eldritch yellow light animated his eyes.

The monk threw up his hands. "It's as I've been saying! With three mages together, you're almost strong enough to hold the monsters back to give you enough spellcasting time! With some effort, you three can stand on your own!"

He whirled on a tall red-robed man with a feathered hat. "You, red mage! You wield a sword!"

Next was a stocky woman in a hooded white robe with red markings on the ends of the sleeves. "White mage! Your hammer is a truly frightening weapon!"

The blue-robed man was last on his list. "And you, black mage... with that dagger of yours, you fight from the rear, but none can surpass you in destructive magics."

The three mages still looked annoyed, but more thoughtful than before.

The monk tightened the black belt around his waist. "I have an idea. I will escort Princess Sarah the rest of the way back to the city myself. Meanwhile, you three make camp here and discuss this. I'll return by morning and we'll decide what to do."

He dropped his pack on the ground. "Come, your highness. I'll take you home."

The woman in the dress followed him into the distance.

The black mage put his hands on his hips. "How troublesome."

"We probably deserved this," the red mage admitted. "When we challenged Sir Garland for the princess, none of us fought as we should have. We only avoided a premature death by drinking almost every potion we had. ...our monastic friend had to drink the most."

He doffed his extravagant hat and turned it around in his hands. "Let's make camp, then. Black mage, you and I will erect the tents and light a fire."

"I do have a name," the black mage grumbled, digging in his pack for the tent pegs.

"White mage, do we have enough food for a meal?"

The white mage frowned. "I may have to hunt a few more rabbits." She set off into the grass, hammer in her hands.

The tents were easily set up, and a few minutes later found the red and black mage digging a hole for a fire pit. That was less easy.

"So what's your name, then?" the red mage asked, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Daewoo," the black mage replied. "You?"

"Satoshi." The red mage groaned as he shifted another shovelful of dirt. "We mages aren't cut out for this sort of thing, are we?"

"Would have preferred not to be reminded," Daewoo grumbled. "Do you think this is deep enough?"

They stepped back and looked it over.

"Good enough for me," Satoshi muttered, and dumped an armful of firewood in the hole. Daewoo followed it up with a bundle of dried grass.

They looked at each other. "Who shall light the fire?" Satoshi asked.

"I have some charges left," Daewoo told him.

"As do I," Satoshi replied. He eyed him for a moment, then grinned. "Twice the fire is twice the fun. What do you say?"

Daewoo grinned back. "I say 'indeed.'"

The two mages raised their hands and chanted. The contents of the pit instantly burst into flame with a loud whoosh.

The white mage returned to find them sitting side by side, watching the fire, peeling vegetables, and chattering like old acquaintances.

"We've gotten off on the wrong foot, I'd say," Satoshi was saying. "It does seem we have quite a lot in common, and we should be friends. It's a pity it took the monk's departure to make us realize that. I'll have to apologize to him when he returns."

"No time for that," the white mage told him grimly. "Get ready to fight."

The two mages sprung up. "What's the matter?" Daewoo asked.

She pointed east with her hammer, the end of which was still caked with bits of rabbit. "Monsters after me. A group of crazyhorse coming this way. They scented blood when I bagged my second rabbit and now they're working up into a frenzy."

The men swore. The crazyhorse was one of the more irritating inhabitants of the Cornelia area. Unlike other horses, they had yellow coats and a single horn in the middle of their foreheads. There was also the matter of their insanity: they stampeded about, frothing at the mouth and trampling goblin and human alike.

The white mage set the game she'd caught by the fire and hefted her hammer.

"Tactics," Satoshi said. "Keep your backs to the fire. Front row is me and the white ma... what's your name?"

"Floe," she said.

He nodded sharply. "My name is Satoshi and his is Daewoo. It's strange we hadn't gotten around to this earlier. Now, the formation is Floe and me in the front row, Daewoo in the back. We're almost out of potions so Floe and I reserve our remaining magic charges for healing. Stay calm; the sun is starting to set and they're coming from the east so our eyes will have the advantage."

Daewoo scanned the horizon. "There they are."

A full herd of four crazyhorse. The mages gritted their teeth. This was going to take a while.

Daewoo frowned. "I had thought all crazyhorse were yellow."

One of the four horses was purple.

He squinted. "Are those... wings?"

(The next day, Floe would sketch the crazyhorse in her journal. It is a sketch crafted of pastels. It is encircled with bands of black pastel. It menaces with spikes of red pastel. It depicts an image of a yellow horse. It depicts an image of a yellow horse. It depicts an image of a yellow horse. It depicts an image of a purple horse. The yellow horse is charging. The yellow horse is leaping. The yellow horse is charging. The purple horse is flying. The purple horse is screaming.)

Daewoo frowned. "Do you hear someone crying for help?"

"We can rescue them after putting these monsters down," Satoshi growled. "Weapons ready!"

The horses were upon them, and then all was chaos. Floe and Satoshi lashed out with hammer and sword, while Daewoo used his last few spell charges to hurl small thunderbolts. The battlefield came alive with shouts.

"They're flanking to the left!"

"I need a heal!"

"Floe, duck!"

"_helphelphelphelpohcelestiaidontwannadiehelphelp_"

"Someone bring that flying purple one down!"

"On it!"

"Aiieeeeeeee!"

"It just flew into the tent!"

"Collapse the tent and keep fighting!"

A few minutes later, the corpses of three horses lay strewn on the ground. Satoshi and Daewoo, hoof-shaped bruises on their arms, dragged them away from the camp. Floe tied down the collapsed tent to trap its contents, then went to skin the rabbits.

The three of them met in front of the tent after they were done, wiping the blood off their hands. The rush of battle was fading away. Floe's eyes were tired as she used the last of her healing magic.

Satoshi stared at the tent holding their final foe. It had gone oddly still and silent. "What now, I wonder?" he asked.

"Burn it," Daewoo suggested. "We can buy another tent."

"No! Please!" a woman's voice came from inside. It was the same one they'd heard earlier including, oddly, during the battle.

"Who's there?" Satoshi demanded. "Did the purple horse-thing harm you?"

There was a pause. "...please don't call me a 'purple horse-thing.'"

* * *

"So you've had a bad day, princess," Satoshi remarked neutrally.

The three mages and the alicorn were sitting around a roaring fire. The stars were twinkling their way to visibility overhead.

"Carrot?" Floe offered.

"Thank you." Twilight Sparkle accepted it and began to eat, carefully avoiding looking at the roast rabbit meat the others were enjoying.

"I'm sorry I put you to all this trouble," Twilight said. "I know how to fight too, really I do! I use magic just like you do and I've had to defend my own kingdom more than once. But when I arrived here about fifteen minutes ago, the first thing that happened was those awful ponies started to chase me around and I couldn't get far enough away to concentrate and cast any magic. I'm not very good at flying yet, so they pulled me down and forced me to run with the herd. And then they saw you and went after you, too. Thank you for saving me!"

"Second princess we've saved today," Satoshi said. "The first one wasn't purple, though."

"You're a mage?" Floe asked.

Twilight smiled. "We don't use the term 'mage' in my country, but yes, you could call me one. I've been studying magic all my life and I know a lot of spells! Not that many of them are useful for fighting, though, like the spells you use."

"In our country, schools of magic are classified by color," Satoshi told her. "Which color is yours?"

"We don't use colors, but really I've learned spells from all the schools we have," Twilight said.

"We may well call you a 'purple mage' for convenience," Satoshi decided.

"You and your purple," Twilight grumbled.

"Better than scarlet," Daewoo retorted.

Twilight stiffened. "Hey! I am a lady and a scholar!"

Daewoo chuckled, 'gotcha!' written all over his face. Whatever part of his face was visible under that hat, that is. "Yes, your royal highness." Twilight only looked more indignant, which only made Daewoo chuckle louder.

"Roast you an apple?" Floe asked, distracting Twilight.

"Yes, please. I wonder if I should try to make diplomatic contact with the local authorities. Is there a king or queen near here?"

"The royal capital's a few hours' travel to the south," Satoshi told her. "May I ask... does your hair always look like that?"

Twilight felt above her head with her hooves and groaned. "No, it's never that poofy. I think one of your electric attack spells just missed me but messed up my hair."

"But that color..." Satoshi marveled.

"I must look like Pinkie Pie," Twilight grumbled. She suddenly thought of something and gasped. "The other ponies! Did you..."

"I wouldn't call them 'ponies,'" Daewoo said. "Horrible mindless creatures. Killing them wasn't murder, it was just like exterminating any other rabid beast."

Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. "They don't talk or anything?"

"You're the first horse I've ever met who so much as understands human speech," Satoshi told her. "The crazyhorse aren't even intelligent enough to be called savages."

"This... is a violent place," Twilight concluded. "So what are you guys up to? Camping trip?"

"We were called to save the world," Satoshi told her.

"Sounds familiar," Twilight sighed.

Satoshi held up a darkened crystal. "There are four Warriors of Light, each one bearing one of the four Crystals. You see three Warriors here before you. Our mission is to defeat four Fiends and restore the light to the Crystals."

"Oh, hey," Twilight said brightly. "I've got one of those."

She dug in her saddlebag and pulled out a drawing of a tiara. "See, here, on my crown. We call this crystal an Element of Harmony. Maybe this means your four crystals are the local equivalent of the Elements. But only four instead of six... could I borrow that crystal for a minute? Thanks."

The three mages watched as she set the crystal on the ground and tapped it with her horn. "Definitely some power generation going on in here... attenuated effect... an elemental affinity with... wind! Oh, this is exciting!"

"There are four elements," Satoshi told her. "Earth, fire, water, and, yes, the wind. The Fiends have darkened the Crystals governing each one, so we are charged to restore them."

"It's going to be quite the adventure," Daewoo added.

"You're just like us!" Twilight concluded, her excitement growing. "My five friends and I, we've had to do some similar things with our six Elements. But... didn't you say there was a fourth Warrior of Light?"

"We had an argument today and he left," Daewoo admitted. "He's not a mage himself, so there's been some friction. He'll return by morning."

"Speaking of seeing you in the morning," Twilight said, "I should head home myself."

"Apple's ready," Floe said, holding up a just-roasted apple on a stick.

"Okay, maybe I'll stay a few more minutes."

* * *

"...and then they showed me an analogue of the Elements! Their affinity seems to be to nature instead of friendship, and there are only four. But there's no mistaking it, Princess, those four are just like us! The correspondence isn't as tight as it was with the girls from the other human universe, but it's definitely there!"

Princess Celestia put down her tea. "You really are my favorite student. Well done, Twilight."

"Um," Fluttershy said.

Her five friends and Princesses Celestia and Luna all turned to look at her.

She shied back.

"Please, go on," Celestia told her.

"Do you... do you think we should go help them? On their quest?"

"I was considering going," Twilight admitted. "They've got some fascinating magic. I saw one of them throw lightning around like it was nothing!"

"And that suggests something which troubles me," Celestia said. "You said it yourself when you were there: that is a violent world. Going there to fight battles not your own will be far more dangerous than what you've seen in Equestria or in that 'high school.' Since the portal seems to be permanently stable, anything we do there is going to have long-term consequences."

Twilight hung her head. "I know. But those three mages and I are kind of almost friends now, and it feels right to help them out, especially since it's the sort of magic I've dealt with before."

Celestia smiled warmly. "Well said, my little pony. I'm proud of you. It takes courage to face danger for the sake of your friends. That said, that doesn't mean we can't be practical about it. Why don't we plan it out like this? It sounds like the Warriors of Light have just started their quest and things are still moving slowly. You can get away with visiting them every day and coming back to report at night, and your friends can also drop by to contribute their special talents when it's necessary. When we know more about their world and what it will take to help them, we can figure out who else to send and what they should do."

Princess Luna looked thoughtful. "One thing I remember from your report of the Sunset Shimmer incident-" Celestia winced at the mention of the name- "was the loneliness and isolation you suffered from. I suggest we move the mirror to your library in Ponyville. You will at least be able to spend your nights at home with your friends, and by talking to them every night you'll more quickly know when they are needed."

"I do hope I get to go," Rarity said. "I absolutely _must_ see what humans wear!"

"They've got some very nice hats," Twilight told her.

* * *

Endnote:


	2. Party Select

The sun rose over Cornelia in a partly cloudy sky. One cloud was particularly busy, wildly changing shape every few seconds.

"I'm not very good at this," Twilight Sparkle sighed.

"Eh, your wings are new. You'll get better if you practice," Rainbow Dash told her. The two of them pushed and prodded at their chosen cloud until it was just the right shape. "If you practice a whole lot, you might be almost as good as me. Maybe."

The two ponies backed away from their cloud and looked it over.

"This should stay in one piece for a while," Rainbow Dash said.

The portal to this universe was housed in a wardrobe that had been abandoned in a grove of trees. The two of them went down to fetch it, making sure to keep clouds between them and Cornelia City in the distance. They found Rarity and Pinkie Pie standing in front of the wardrobe, critiquing it.

"This is more of an armoire, really," Rarity said when they landed. "I'm astounded it's survived out in the wild for so long."

"It's like some kind of armoire of invicibility!" Pinkie decided. "Maybe you could drop it on the bad guys' heads?"

"Are you just here to see me off? I'm not going to be gone all day, you know. And what if you're seen?" Twilight scolded them.

Fluttershy poked her head out of a tree. "I've been listening to the animals," she told Twilight. "Nopony is nearby for at least a mile."

"Really, is everypony here?" Twilight groaned.

"Applejack isn't..." Rarity told her.

"Oh, all right."

"Because she's packing your lunch," Rarity finished.

Twilight's eye twitched. "Okay. I, I think I understand. Are you worried because of what happened to me last time I went through a portal? I really appreciate it, but this time it's nowhere near as bad! Really!"

She looked at them. They looked at her.

"Okay, group hug," she sighed.

The five ponies embraced. An orange arm emerged from the wardrobe, holding a spatula, and awkwardly patted Twilight on the shoulder.

After shooing the others back through the wardrobe, Twilight enlisted Rainbow Dash's help in lifting it up to the cloud, setting it in place. Rainbow Dash brushed bits of the cloud over the wardrobe, making it harder to see from above. They'd noticed airships moving around earlier.

"Okay, Twilight, stay safe. See you tonight!" Rainbow Dash dove into the cloud and there was muffled sound of a wooden door opening and closing.

Twilight made one last check that the wardrobe was safe and hidden, then gave her wings an experimental flap.

She heard the door open again, and the orange arm stuck out of the cloud, holding a brown paper bag in its hoof.

"Thanks, Applejack." Twilight checked inside the bag to find an assortment of apple pastries, gently steaming. This was apparently to be her packed lunch. She cast a quick spell to keep it warm and put it in her saddlebag.

Applejack's arm waved good-bye and the door shut again. Twilight flew down to the surface, homing in on the fire she'd sat at the previous night.

The last bit of smoke was fading away on the wind. As she spiraled awkwardly in for a landing, she saw that there were now four figures sitting at the camp. One of them looked up, saw her, and shouted.

She landed to see three happy mages and one extremely surprised monk.

"What are you?" the monk breathed.

"A more useful question would be 'who are you,'" Satoshi remarked.

"Who, then," the monk agreed.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm a pony. Who're you?"

"My name is Sabin. I'm a human. Well... pleased to meet you."

Twilight smiled. "Glad to meet you too."

"I'm the fourth Warrior of Light, a monk," Sabin told her. "That is my profession. What is yours?"

"Purple mage," Satoshi said instantly.

"Princess, first of her house," Daewoo added.

"We'd already mentioned this," they said in unison.

Twilight rolled her eyes. Sabin found this mildly disconcerting. For one thing, given how ponies' faces were shaped, there was an awful lot of eye to roll.

"A fourth mage for the party," Sabin said. "It's good that you've come. Shall we decide how to divide the Fiends between you four and me? We can be on our separate ways before noon."

Twilight was aghast. "No, absolutely not!"

Sabin frowned. "Do not worry about my traveling alone. I have met several adventurers in Cornelia who could make potential allies, and there are also several brothers from my monastery whom I've been considering..."

Twilight shook her head. "No, it's not that. If your crystals are as analogous to our Elements as I think they are, they'll only be at full power when you're working together! If you go off by yourself, you'll be weaker, and you'll make your three friends weaker as well! Listen, I'm speaking from experience here: do not split the party."

Glaring, she leaned into Sabin's face. "I know what you're thinking, Sabin: 'I can do it myself.' 'They'll just slow me down.' 'We just don't work the same way.' No. I've seen where that way of thinking leads. Sometimes it was me, sometimes it was my friends who tried to go it alone. Never worked. Ever. We'd end up with some kind of silly disaster every time. In your case, people would die. You will not make the same mistake."

The alicorn and the monk stared each other down.

Sabin broke first. The longer he stared at Twilight's face, the more a disturbingly large part of his brain sent warm and fuzzy feelings through him which were usually reserved for when he saw kittens and small children. His bare-chested manliness was at risk, and as a martial artist monk he couldn't have that.

"Good," Twilight said. "And don't you forget it, mister. Back home I've been studying the magic behind friendshi... camaraderie, and I can tell you that the success of your quest will depend on all of us working closely together."

She smiled and nodded decisively. "Okay. Where are we going?"

Sabin's shoulders slumped. "I fear we may be about to waste quite a bit of time. I've been to see the king in Cornelia city. He has heard word that the Fiend of Earth, the Lich, is near Melmond."

"Melmond!" Satoshi exclaimed.

"Crossing the Aldean Sea without a boat?" Daewoo grumbled.

"It'll take weeks to get there," Sabin sighed. "I see, your highness, that you can fly. Could you possibly fly us?"

"Me, fly you? Transitive no, intransitive in the sense of using my wings no, intransitive in the sense of aircraft..." Twilight brightened. "Yes. We can use my balloon! The gondola will need expanding, but I have just the spell for that. I'll have to pass a message home..."

A sneaking suspicion entered Twilight's mind. "Hey, Pinkie!"

A pink pony poked perkily out of one of the Light Warriors' tents. "Hi!"

Just as she suspected. "Could you go tell Cherry Berry to deflate the Twinkling Balloon? We're going to bring it here. Thanks."

"'kay!" Pinkie Pie ducked back into the tent. A flabbergasted Floe lifted the door flap- and the tent was empty.

"Your friend?" she asked.

"Pinkie Pie, one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony," Twilight said.

Pinkie appeared at the edge of the screen (Screen? Twilight wondered with temporary disorientation) and waved. "Okey dokey pokey! We can have it for you in oneeee hour!"

She gasped. "That's enough time to bake you all a batch of cupcakes! I gotta go!"

"Her powers are many and subtle," Twilight deadpanned as Pinkie vanished again.

Satoshi took off his hat and scratched his head.

This time, Pinkie's head popped out of the hat, almost causing Satoshi to drop it. "So the cupcakes! I'm gonna make red velvet. Is that okay with everypony?"

Satoshi nodded dumbly.

"Cream cheese frosting?" Floe asked.

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes and held up her hooves. "Duh!"

Twilight twitched. "Pinkie Pie, how do you keep getting in here? I thought someone was guarding the portal."

"It's my turn but I'm going to trade slots with Fluttershy so I can go bake bye-bye!" She disappeared again.

"Subtle indeed," Daewoo agreed.

"When I moved to a new town, she was the first pony I met," Twilight remembered. "For the rest of the day, I thought that everypony in town must be insane! We're friends so I'm more used to her personality now, but for you guys she might be coming on really strong. I'm sorry."

There was a minute or two of silence which Twilight had come to know as the normal recovery time from Pinkie exposure.

Satoshi eventually came to his senses and spoke. "Shouldn't we strike camp?"

As they took down and packed the tents, Daewoo looked over to Twilight. "I have questions about purple magic."

"I wouldn't say it's called purple magic..."

Daewoo pointed to the magenta aura surrounding the tent pegs that Twilight was floating one by one into a sack.

Twilight gave in. "Oh, all right."

"What is your domain's specialty? My own black magic revolves around destruction- I call on the elements of fire, ice, and lightning to strike my foes. Floe's white magic is restoration, healing magic. Satoshi's red magic is a mixture of both, the middle road."

Twilight tried to view and analyze unicorn magic from an outside perspective. This was fun! "Do you have a lot of mages in your country?"

"We are considered rare and powerful."

Lecture time, her favorite time. "That explains a lot. In my country, one out of every three ponies can use active magic like I am now, but the auras come in more colors than purple, you know. The rest of the population has passive magic instead. What this means, though, is that magic is innate to every last pony in Equestria. Because of this, magic is considered an everyday thing and used for everyday purposes. For instance, my job at home isn't 'mage.' I work as a librarian and researcher, but I use magic during work for things like moving books, managing the circulation desk, and cleaning the library. My friend Rarity uses her magic to design and tailor clothing and accessories."

"Household magic," Daewoo surmised.

"Exactly! But that doesn't mean I can't be of any use in a fight. Even though I can't... uh, can't bring myself to kill anypony, I can help and protect you! My list of abilities includes levitation, teleportation, telekinesis, localized gravitic vector displacement, force field shielding, limited transfiguration, limited mass-magic conversion, controlled light emission, and concussive wave generation. And that's not including the Element-powered magic."

Daewoo blinked. "That is nothing like any magic I've ever heard of. This 'concussive wave generation,' is it your only direct magical attack?"

Twilight nodded. "Only ponies in the royal guard really learn any combat magic. I can use my other abilities in a fight, too, but I have to think creatively."

"Levitation... I can see how that would be useful!" The two of them finished packing their tent. A sack fell over, spilling out a pile of-

"Omigoshbooks!" Twilight squealed. She flipped one open. "Magic books!" The Warriors of Light weren't able to get a single word out of her for the rest of the hour, caught in the throes of comparative xenothaumaturgy as she was.

"Librarians," Floe muttered.

Twilight finally stopped her note-taking when Rainbow Dash tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, got your stuff."

Twilight looked up. Floating next to her on a large cloud just above the ground was her hot-air balloon. The envelope itself had been deflated and rolled up inside the gondola.

"Ever fill one of these?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"No, Cherry Berry always took care of that."

"Heh heh heh. I'm about to blow your mind with awesome!"

Rainbow Dash always loved an audience. She soon had Sabin and Satoshi running back and forth piling more wood on the fire while the others held the opening of the balloon's envelope open.

Her grin spread ear to ear. "Hang on tight 'cause here I go!"

She sprang off the ground. "Twilight, hold me in place."

A magenta glow covered her a moment later.

"Wooohooo!" She started flapping her wings in huge arcs, sending air rushing through the fire and into the balloon.

Her wings blurred as her efforts increased. Twilight thought she could almost see a sonic rainboom starting to form beneath her in some kind of standing wave. Holding her in place was taking all of her magical strength.

As Rainbow Dash continued to push staggering volumes of air, the balloon started to inflate and rise off the ground. By the time it was full, she was showing definite signs of exhaustion. Twilight lowered her to the ground where she collapsed in a gasping heap.

"Oh yeahhh," she panted. "Bet that was... a new personal record."

Twilight shook her head fondly and went over to switch on the balloon's burner. A small flame lit with a whoosh, supplying additional heat to the balloon.

The ropes tying it to the ground strained as the balloon, now full and heated, was ready to fly. Sabin put out the campfire.

"All aboard!" she said, expanding the gondola to fit four humans.

The Warriors of Light boarded the balloon to find a tray of freshly-baked cupcakes lying on a bench.

Floe picked one up. Red velvet with cream cheese frosting, just as promised. "Oh, yes," she whispered.

Twilight shut the door and turned to Rainbow Dash, who had managed to stand up.

"I think we'll need your knowledge of air currents to get this moving in the correct direction," she said. "We want to go west."

"Noo problem!" Rainbow Dash sprung up and spiraled into the sky.

She was back down in a minute, the very image of professionalism. "Winds are fairly calm today. There's a nice breeze west by north, about twenty-five knots, at seventeen hundred feet. It should last a few hours, but we might run into a cold front about the time we reach the coast. Could rain, too."

Twilight reflected that if there was one area in which Rainbow Dash knew words that she didn't, it would be aviation. Now that she had wings herself, it was probably a good idea to read some books on navigation and meteorology.

Rainbow Dash saw the look on her face. "I'm the best flier in Equestria! I gotta know what I'm talking about."

They loosed the ropes and the balloon rose up into the morning sky, twinkling gently.

"Purple again," Satoshi murmured, looking up at the envelope.

"Gotta idea," Rainbow Dash said to Twilight as they followed the balloon up. "We should get some clouds and hide the balloon from the ground. We can bring the wardrobe along that way, too."

Twilight nodded. "Good thinking."

She went to fetch the cloud with the wardrobe while Rainbow Dash zoomed off to fetch additional clouds. By the time the balloon was at altitude, a shield of cloud hung beneath it, protecting it from view. Twilight used some spells she'd learned in Cloudsdale to attach the clouds tightly to the gondola.

By noon, they'd settled into a routine. Rainbow Dash flew around gauging weather conditions while Twilight discussed strategy and magic with the Warriors of Light. Sabin still seemed a bit tense around the others, but was slowly coming round, helped along by the occasional glare from Twilight.

They gathered for a lunch of pastries and the remaining cupcakes.

"Sho you guysh don't fly at all?" Rainbow Dash asked through a mouthful of one of Twilight's apple fritters.

"We have magically-powered airships but they're very expensive," Satoshi told her. "This balloon is actually somewhat primitive compared to the technology we have."

"Saw them. Not too impressed. 's cause we don't need fancy technology when we can just fly by ourselves," Rainbow Dash retorted.

"Point taken."

She stole more of Twilight's lunch. "Do you have a way to travel fast on the ground, too?"

Satoshi nodded. "Some people can ride chocobos: large birds with long legs for running. There are none in Cornelia, so I've never mounted one myself. They've got saddlebags just like yours."

"If you were not so tiny, I might well ask to ride on you," Daewoo said.

"On the ground? Ew," Rainbow Dash protested.

* * *

The moonlight shined through the windows of Twilight Sparkle's library, a sign that Luna was doing her best to listen in.

"So I spent an entire day navigating a completely foreign sky and it went perfect! I'm definitely Wonderbolt-worthy now! In fact... maybe if this keeps up I'll be... even better than them?" Rainbow Dash sounded like she was flirting with heresy.

"Anyway," Twilight said, interrupting her existential crisis, "Rainbow Dash found a nice westward wind that we think will last all night, so we can leave them until morning."

"Do they know about the existence of the portal?" Princess Celestia asked. A tall stack of papers sat next to her, the culmination of Twilight's efforts to take notes on the humans' books.

"They've probably figured it out, but they're too polite to ask," Twilight told her.

"Very well. Please ask them not to tell anyone else, and don't let them through the portal unless you ask me first with... how about one day's notice?" Celestia said.

Twilight Sparkle nodded.

Celestia had an idea. "Rainbow Dash. I have been meaning to ask you something. You are now the second pony to have sustained contact with humans. What do _you_ think of them?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Your highness, they just seem like people, you know? They're very serious, but maybe that's because they have that big save-the-world quest. But if I closed my eyes and talked to them... it'd be just like talking to ponies. Talking to Floe's a bit like talking to Big Mac, actually..."

"Maybe ah'd get along with her," Applejack speculated.

"Well, okay, it'd be like talking to your brother if he were a girl, shorter than most other ponies, and carried a very big hammer. And, uh, wore a white robe and had these wiggly 'finger' things."

"Maybe," Applejack repeated. "What kinda hammer?"

"What kind of robe?" Rarity added.

"So, 'fingers,'" Pinkie Pie began.

"You've already seen those!" Twilight told her.

"Oh, right!"


	3. Mid-Boss

Twilight's Twinkling Balloon hung serenely in the air, poised on a disk of cloud beneath it like a teacup on a saucer.

The heads of two ponies poked out of that cloud: Twilight and Rainbow Dash. In order to avoid awkward questions, Twilight thought, they'd have to do this out of sight of the-

"Good morning!" Satoshi said, spotting them.

Never mind, Twilight decided. The two ponies flew up to the gondola.

Satoshi waved vaguely at the sky around them. "We're east of the Aldean Sea now and should be at Melmond soon if the wind holds. Do you have a way to bring us down?"

Twilight was carrying a small crate marked "SUPPLIES." She pried open the lid-

* * *

"SUPPLIES!" Pinkie Pie yelled. She blinked and looked around... she was inside Twilight's library in Ponyville, looking out of the broom closet. Her curly mane drooped. "Aww, I missed."

* * *

There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary inside the crate. Twilight took out a telescope and pressed it into Satoshi's hands. "Here, take this and watch for our destination."

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash hoisted a fresh tank of propane out of the crate and hooked it up to the burner.

"I mentioned my friend who makes clothes?" Twilight said. "She's fascinated by your anatomy and wants to design items for you. She insisted I bring these along to make you try them."

There was a silk top hat and a pair of elegant white gloves. The four Warriors handed them around, trying them on. In the end, Satoshi claimed the hat while Floe took the gloves. They seemed to fit reasonably well.

"Excellent, excellent! Rarity will be pleased," Twilight said, making some quick notes and sketches.

Something abruptly covered her eyes. She levitated it off her head- it was Satoshi's old hat, the red wizard's hat with the feather on it.

"A good mage needs a good hat," he told her. "Floe's the exception- white mages wear hoods."

Rainbow Dash giggled. "Nice hat!"

"Well..." Rainbow began, flustered.

Actually, on second thought, it was quite comfortable. "Okay. Thank you for the hat, Satoshi."

She lowered it back on her head, and it promptly slid back over her eyes. That was going to be a problem, but it really was a fabulous hat. There was this thing she'd seen Applejack's family do...

Twilight found a piece of string and used it to make a crude chinstrap for the hat. Tightened just right, it kept the hat at just the right angle.

She smiled. "Much better!"

Sabin had to look away before he burst into unmanly high-pitched noises. He tried very hard not to think of the phrase "squealing like a schoolgirl."

The town of Melmond came into view below them by midmorning. Melmond was built on a bay; the water beneath them twinkled with deceptive proximity. Twilight came up with a plan where she flew down behind a hill outside town, had a good look around, then returned to the balloon and teleported herself and Satoshi back to the hill. On arrival, Satoshi set off into Melmond to go shopping, have a drink at the inn, and listen to the local gossip.

The two of them soon returned to the balloon.

Satoshi sketched a rough map. "Melmond is decaying: dead trees, barren soil, bitter water. This is blamed on a vampire hiding in the nearby Cavern of Earth... here."

Rainbow Dash groaned. "Underground? I'm a pegasus, dude. You couldn't get me down there if you tried!"

"Don't worry," Twilight told her. "You should stay up here anyway to protect the balloon. I'll go down with the Warriors."

A series of teleports placed the Warriors of Light and their winged chauffeur outside Melmond. They marched to the Cavern in good spirits.

"I suspect I know why Melmond is experiencing magical decay," Twilight Sparkle remarked.

"Are you so sure it is magic?" Daewoo said. "No magic I have ever learned can blast the land. Perhaps a plague or infestation..."

Twilight stopped walking and held up a hoof. "What if... the Lich of Earth brought the Crystal of Earth here and is abusing it? Earth Crystals have earth powers which, gone awry, cause earth decay."

Daewoo got her reasoning. "Ah."

Twilight grinned. "Boy, it's a good thing I got to come along! I've studied magic all my life so I've seen situations like these before. This is fun!"

* * *

Goblins. Ogres. Obscenely huge tarantulas. The odd gargoyle. More ogres. No vampires.

"This isn't fun anymore."

Twilight looked ill as Satoshi and Sabin shoved aside the scorched corpse of their latest enemy. (yet another ogre)

The glow from her horn flickered, almost returning the cave to darkness. She hastily apologized and tightened her concentration, strengthening the light.

"Civilian," Daewoo grumbled.

"Hey! I've been in lots of fights! We just... we just don't kill in my country."

Daewoo was incredulous. "And it's never been necessary? No killing at all?"

"Somehow, we get by."

He quirked an invisible eyebrow. "A cheerful land."

Floe rubbed her chin. "I'd like to go-"

"Goblins coming from behind!" Sabin shouted.

"I've had enough of this," Twilight growled. With a swish of her horn, the ceiling of the cave behind them collapsed. A pile of broken rock blocked the goblins away.

"I was going to teleport us out at the end anyway," she assured the others. "I'm not walking all the way back through that. Let's go."

Daewoo perused his hastily-scribbled map. "The passage ahead remains the only area we have not yet charted."

They went forth. The light from Twilight's horn reflected dully off the rough rock walls.

The five of them rounded a bend to find the cave ending in a large torchlit chamber. Hanging from the ceiling was a figure concealed in a blue cloak. It did not respond to their presence.

"I've been thinking," Twilight whispered. "Maybe we shouldn't try to kill him immediately. If we interrogate him we can find the Lich, possibly even without a fight."

The others thought about this. They decided to give it a try.

"Vampire," Satoshi shouted. "We would speak with you."

The cloak fluttered as the vampire extended his right arm. His pale emaciated face became visible.

"That shall not be necessary. All living things are born to die," the vampire hissed, his voice unnaturally deep. As his lips moved, the Warriors of Light could see occasional flashes of two long fangs.

"Your time has come," the vampire concluded, and dropped from the ceiling. His cloak billowed around him as he landed on all fours.

Daewoo scoffed. "Fluttering cloaks are a sure sign of overblown drama." He promptly set the vampire's on fire.

The vampire snarled and hurled the burning cloak aside, revealing a well-fitting but deteriorating suit. A malevolent power burst forth from his recessed eyes.

"Hrk!" Twilight suddenly found herself rooted to the spot.

"Para...lysis! The vampire's gaze!" Sabin choked out. None of the Warriors of Light were able to move either.

The vampire took a moment to look them over before choosing a target: Twilight Sparkle. She saw with awful clarity the claw-like nails on the end of his shriveled fingers.

Reverting to deeply ingrained habits, she coolly analyzed the situation. Leg mobility: impaired. Speech: impossible. Friends: immobilized. However, she didn't always need mobility, speech, or friends to use her magic. And there on the ceiling...

She disappeared with a flash just as the vampire clawed out at her eyes, reappearing among the stalactites on the cave's ceiling. She couldn't move, but... she could be moved. A burst of her magic shoved her body hooves-first into the nearest stalactite, shattering it.

The entire plan took less than five seconds, ensuring that the vampire was still looking around in confusion when the broken stalactite landed on his head.

Twilight lowered herself to the ground as her allies started to stir.

With a pained groan, a spindly white arm rolled the stalactite aside. The vampire rose unsteadily to his feet and found a rapier at his throat and a hammer at his chest.

"Let us speak now," Satoshi said.

The vampire batted the weapons aside. With the Warriors of Light now avoiding eye contact, he was forced to close to hand-to-hand combat. Satoshi had the pointiest weapon- the vampire went for that first and ripped the rapier out of his hands with undead strength. A backhand sent Satoshi to the ground, knocking him out. He was about to tear at Satoshi's throat when Floe's hammer connected with the side of his head with a solid thump, sending him flying. Twilight's magic added an extra push, ramming him into the far wall of the cavern. Before he could get up, Daewoo set him on fire again.

As the vampire rolled around on the ground, trying to put himself out, Sabin sprung into action, pulling the charred remains of the vampire's cloak over its owner's head to block his paralyzing eyes and blood-drinking fangs. He then sent a rain of punches and kicks on the still-flaming vampire, bruising skin and snapping bones. As the flames died down the vampire was able to fight back, and the ensuing grapple was nasty, brutish, and short. In the end, the vampire was down with severe burns and fractured bones in all four limbs. Sabin, bleeding from claw marks all over him and favoring a sprained ankle, crawled over to Floe to be healed.

"Wasn't... able to kill him," Sabin gasped. "Not... enough strength. You shall have your interrogation, Princess."

Satoshi was still unconscious, so Twilight decided to take over the questioning. She stalked over to the crippled vampire and carefully nosed him face-up. "Let us speak now."

The vampire looked away. "Return me to the earth," he muttered tiredly. "Ye have broken my body beyond even what a feast of blood could mend, if ever I could rise to hunt and drink. My time is over, and we undead know to accept this with peace. Do me this one boon: return me to the earth."

"I can't," Twilight told him, "but I think my friends would. Please answer our questions before..." she stammered- "...before."

"Purple creature, thou seekest the Lich," the vampire guessed. "Fealty to him matters not to me now that I am undone. I shall tell thee of him if thou dost promise to end me quickly."

"Always with the purple," Twilight muttered.

"Powerful white magic," Floe said. "It is known to my order to disintegrate the undead."

"Thou art a white mage." The vampire managed to nod. "That suffices for me. Listen well: the Lich resides deep within this cavern, in a place sealed away. Two more levels exist in the Cavern of Earth beyond a barrier in this chamber. I know not of how to open the way but if ye should breach that seal, ye shall have the Lich- and his Crystal. He awaits you."

"Thank you," Twilight said.

"Quest to restore the Crystals if ye wish, but let it be known that this is no easy task. I have looked upon the Four Fiends and well may it be that they shall be the death of you, cold comfort to me though it be."

He closed his eyes. "Ye the living speak of mercy and restraint. Exercise it now, white mage, and honor thy word. And if ever ye come across the royal house of Cornelia, say to them that Archimboldo the Lean has received the justice of men."

"As you wish." Floe ambled to the vampire and lay her hands on his chest. Her chanting brought forth a light greenish glow around her hands and arms. The vampire smiled slightly and collapsed into a pile of ashes.

Twilight doffed her hat and bowed her head. "Archimboldo, you asked to be returned to the earth. I'll give that to you."

Her horn flashed and packed the ashes into a crevice in the cave floor. Twilight used her magic to cover it with stones.

"Vampires," Daewoo grumbled. "Think the world's their stage and they the leading men."

"We just killed him," Twilight scolded him, "and you're calling him a drama queen?"

"All the histories mentioning the defeat of vampires have chapters upon chapters devoted to their final words," Daewoo told her. "Count yourself lucky that this Archimboldo was so succinct. He was no ordinary vampire."

Twilight sighed. "'No ordinary vampire.' That's the closest thing to a eulogy I'm going to get from you, I can tell."

Daewoo shrugged. "Vampires prey upon man, woman, and child alike, bringing the terror of the night as does nothing else. It is no crime to destroy them in a fair fight."

"By your laws," Twilight pointed out. "Well... that'll have to be good enough for me. So let's look at this barrier."

They examined the cavern and found a locked door on the far side. Twilight tapped it with her horn.

"Found it. It's sealed with magic," she concluded. "I don't know how to disenchant it. We can just force it open, but we'll have to work really hard."

She thought a moment, then used her magic to blast the door head on. It didn't budge.

The five of them set their shoulders against the door and shoved. It still didn't budge.

Satoshi had bought an iron crosier for Floe while shopping in Melmond, but she preferred her old hammer. He decided to put the unwanted weapon to good use; he shoved it beneath the door then tried to lever it up using his and everyone else's weight. Helped along by a few more blasts from Twilight, this time the door trembled slightly.

"We just need more force," Twilight mused. "...I know just the pony. Hold on, I'll be right back."

She teleported away and returned a few minutes later with an orange pony wearing a Stetson.

"Ah jes' don't know if ah'm suited fer this!" Applejack protested.

"It's simple!" Twilight assured her. "Use the same kick you do for applebucking to break down this door."

"Who's your friend?" Satoshi asked.

"Oh! This is Applejack, another holder of an Element. She works at an apple orchard and she kicks really hard."

Applejack lifted her hat. "Howdy, pleased ta meetcha. Let's get acquainted after we get this sucker shifted."

They arranged themselves. Twilight and the four Warriors of Light waited in front of the spear. Applejack sidled up next to them and turned her back on the door.

"On three!" Satoshi said. "One, two..."

Twilight and the Warriors jumped on the shaft of the spear. At the same time, Applejack jumped up with her hind legs and lashed out.

There was a resounding crack but the door stayed where it was.

Twilight poked at it again and smiled. "The enchantment on this door just got weaker. Let's do it again!"

"Ready," Satoshi said. "One, two, three!"

It took several more kick-and-lever attempts, but eventually the smell of smoke filled the air and a long thin crack appeared in the middle of the door. A burst of power ran through the air, sending shivers down their spines and making their hair stand up on end.

"Okay, we broke the spell! Applejack, give it a good kick right down the middle," Twilight said.

"Don't you worry, all mah kicks're good kicks. Well, 'cept for that one time last harvest season but that doesn't count okay?" Applejack trotted up to the front of the door, whirled around, and delivered a devastating kick right on the crack. The door, now just a piece of ordinary stone, shattered to reveal the way forward.

"Yee-ha!" she cheered, waving her hat in the air.

Satoshi picked up the iron crosier. It was now bent down the middle. "A shame we ruined this staff," he sighed.

"Can I have it?" Twilight asked. "I'd like to examine the inherent magic."

"Magic comes from the mage," Floe said. "That is only a decorated bar of iron."

Applejack came over. "Ah'll take it, then. Ah can hit things with it."

They ground through two more floors of cavern. With two ponies to assist them, one with strategic rock slides and the other with iron bars to the face, they made good time, leaving a stream of unconscious and dazed monsters behind them. With two ponies now in the party, more violent measures were out of the question.

"Have we killed anything since the vampire?" Daewoo half-complained.

"If this is the price we pay for their assistance, it is quite the bargain," Satoshi told him.

"And so the trick to the recipe is, about one out of every four apples you use has gotta be sour!" Applejack said as she brained a goblin with her crosier.

"Using the tartness to partially curdle the cream! I will have to remember that," Sabin mused as he kicked a goblin in the knee.


	4. Boss Fight

In the deepest part of the Cavern of Earth stood a dim brown crystal. In front of it was a skeletal figure wearing a purple cloak and a horned helmet.

The moment Daewoo caught sight of the Lich, his course of action was irrevocably decided.

He set the cloak on fire.

"Is that your only tactic ever?" Twilight groaned.

"An ancient and sacred rule of our order: 'burn; and be glad,'" he recited.

"Indeed I am having a good day," he added, sending more fire at the Lich.

The undead fiend rolled along the ground to put itself out and sprang back up, spraying lightning from its fingertips. The Warriors of Light and their equine friends spasmed as sparking agony coursed through their bodies.

"Th-th-that'sh third le'el m-magic," Daewoo groused. He shivered violently and tried to unnumb his tongue. "Un'air."

"Electric death!" the Lich crowed. "Drink well and deeply!"

Daewoo looked at it with newfound respect. What it'd just said... that was an ideal a black mage could stand behind. Floe, seeing this, did her best to fight her paralysis to roll her eyes.

Twilight understood lightning to be an electrostatic discharge down a large electric potential, preferentially between conductive objects. Electric potential: inversely proportional to distance.

She had a conductive object. In order to manipulate the course of the electrostatic discharge, she could reduce the conductor's distance to the emitter and thus increase its electric potential. Elementary.

The Lich cackled and raised its hands to cast again. Twilight, her horn glowing, lifted the crosier from the ground where Applejack had dropped it.

"Mah whackin' stick!" Applejack complained.

"Sorry, need it for something!" Twilight sent it flying at the Lich's head.

The Lich had barely any time to be surprised that its lightning was being absorbed into the purple-glowing crosier before the weapon connected with its lower jaw, partially dislodging it from the Lich's skull.

Floe, trying to keep her twitching legs from sending her back to the ground, followed up with a mallet to the head, tearing the jaw the rest of the way off.

The jawless Lich swung its arms around, creating a cloud of superchilled air around itself. Ice crystals twinkled as the air's water vapor instantly froze. Floe and the others jumped back, already suffering from mild frostburn. Her and Satoshi's lips fluttered as they ramped up to continually casting Cure.

The Lich reached down, picked up its jaw, and reattached it. It worked the jaw back and forth before nodding. "Have at you!"

Its body blurred and it shot forward at unnatural speed, knocking Daewoo over. An outthrust skeletal hand set him on fire but before the Lich could deal further damage, a small boulder shattered against its head.

"Usually ah stick to kickin' apples but ah'll make an exception for you," Applejack said.

Sabin jumped in and forced the Lich back with swinging fists.

Like the Lich before him, Daewoo rolled on the ground to put the fire out. "Well played, lich," he wheezed.

Sabin and the Lich were trading a storm of blows. Whatever spell the Lich had cast, it made it move at about double speed, allowing it to steadily push Sabin back. Daewoo and Satoshi were following along, trying and failing to find an opening to cast a spell.

Why wasn't the Lich casting any more magic? Twilight frowned. Pattern matching, pattern matching...

Twilight still had hold of Applejack's Whackin' Stick. She hurled it at the Lich just as Sabin jumped away, his arms severely bruised.

Magical light gathered around the Lich's hands- and fizzled out as the staff hit it in the wrists.

Twilight grinned. "A-ha! Now I know that- eek!"

The Lich had picked up the Whackin' Stick and hurled it back at her. She tried to dodge, but too slowly. It hit her in the side with a loud crack, sending her down to the ground.

Applejack rushed over. "Twilight! You okay?"

Twilight managed to sit up and looked at the twisted clump of feathers growing out of her side. "I think... I think my wing's broken..."

Applejack hung her head. "Aw, Twilight..."

Twilight lay a hoof on Applejack's shoulder. "I bet the Princesses can fix it, but we don't have time for that right now."

She raised her voice. "Listen, everyone- the Lich casts from its hands! If you can disable the hands, the Lich won't be able to use magic!"

"Warriors, to me!" Satoshi called out. "Trap the Lich's hands! Floe and I to the left, Daewoo and Sabin to the right!"

They closed in on the Lich which instinctively surrounded itself with electricity. The Warriors of Light got a good electrocuting before Twilight disrupted the spell with a Whackin' Stick to the shin.

"Was aiming for the head," she muttered, weaving back and forth on her legs. With the adrenaline rush wearing off, she was really starting to feel the pain. Having that level of agony coming from a body part she didn't even have a few weeks ago was really messing with her head; she wouldn't be much more use in this fight.

Freed from the electricity, the four Warriors of Light latched on to the Lich. With a Herculean swing, Floe hammered the Lich's left elbow, tearing off the entire forearm. Satoshi kicked it away.

The other side was not so lucky. Still fighting off the electrocution, Sabin and Daewoo could do little more than grab the right arm and hold it still. A glow came from the Lich's right hand and Sabin's eyes closed. He released the arm and fell to the ground, asleep.

"Apple-Jack!" Daewoo shouted. "I cannot hold for long. Strike the shoulder!"

Applejack nodded grimly and spun around on her feet, delivering a vicious kick to the Lich's shoulder. The bones snapped and the Lich lost its remaining arm. The four Warriors collapsed to the ground in a steaming, crackling pile, gasping in pain.

"You dare," the armless Lich hissed.

"Ya broke Twilight's wing, so ah suppose ah could," Applejack said, and kicked again, this time at the Lich's pelvis. Satoshi tangled his rapier in the Lich's rib cage before it could dodge.

With a resounding crack, the once-mighty Lich was reduced to little more than a torso with a head and half an arm. Applejack sat down solidly on its chest, pinning it to the ground.

"You ain't goin' nowhere," she told the Lich.

* * *

"Satoshi's told you a million times by now: we are restoring this Crystal no matter what," Twilight told the Lich sternly. "The simplest way is... to kill you... but if you surrender to us we can take you away from the Crystal and that should work too. Why don't you cooperate? Don't you want to live?"

The Lich fixed her with a steely gaze. "I am a lich. I live not."

An unexpected synapse sparked in Twilight's head. "Um... can we fix that for you?" she blurted.

The lich stared. Its jaw slowly dropped.

"I mean, we've got magic and all... we could definitely try to make you alive again."

The lich continued to stare. Having empty sockets for eyes meant it didn't have to blink.

"I'm sure my heads of state would be willing to revivify you as some kind of diplomatic measure. I think actually I might be the third head of state now too which is kind of scary and okay I'm babbling I'm going to stop now."

Twilight got the impression that had the Lich had a face, it'd be making quite an unusual expression.

"Well, you're not saying no, are you?"

"I know not how to respond to such a... preposterous..."

Well, Twilight thought, might as well go all the way. She drew herself up. "I've decided. As a Princess of the Kingdom of Equestria I declare you my prisoner, and under our laws you are entitled to medical treatment, in your case including revivification. Do you have any personal property you wish to bring?"

The Lich was quite lost. "Are we still speaking the same language?"

"Personal items?" she insisted. "Magical or otherwise?"

The Lich gave up on trying to make sense of the situation. "My phylactery, the seat of my soul. It resides in a gem embedded within my skull."

"Noted. Do you need your torso?" Twilight asked briskly.

"It is not strictly necessar-"

Twilight stomped on the helpless Lich's neck, decapitating it. "Excellent. Medical evacuation is underway. Be right back, everypony."

She stuck the slack-jawed Lich's skull in her saddlebag, flashed purple, and disappeared.

The Warriors of Light stared at where she'd been. Applejack wanted to say something, to apologize for her friend's weirdness, but she couldn't find the words.

Floe looked at the bottle of tincture she'd used to disinfect Twilight's wounds. "Oh, rally-ho... this formula contains alcohol..."

"That happened from skin contact? Never serve liquor to ponies," Daewoo said. "Understood."

Behind them, a soft glow appeared in the Crystal of Earth.

* * *

All was darkness. Some time had passed since its defeat, the Lich knew, but it couldn't tell how much. It suspected some sort of magical stasis.

A booming voice: **We greet you, prisoner, on behalf of our kingdom. We will be pleased to hear your name.**

The Lich was mystified. "I... am the Lich."

**Are you the only Lich to have ever been?**

"No."

**Then you ought to have a different name of your own. Do you?**

"...no."

The voice softened almost imperceptibly. **We will deal with that in time. As for ourself, we are Luna, Princess of Equestria, and mistress of the night-time. Well met, the Lich.**

The voice sounded more conspiratorial. **It gladdens us to see another who resides in and appreciates the darkness. Most others just sleep through it even with all our hard work...**

There was the merest suggestion of starlight, the Lich noticed now. It could just make out that it was in a large chamber, and before it, there was a jet-black hole in the world in the shape of a horse.

**Really this darkness is quite comfortable**, the princess said. **An excellent place in which to do business. To wit: do you desire to live again?**

"I have never lived," the Lich said. "From my very creation I have been a lich."

**As one who is alive, we must inform you that it is quite enjoyable**, Luna said gravely.

The Lich wasn't in a position to argue. "Do as you will with me."

Luna nodded. **Our subject Twilight Sparkle has informed us that your soul is bound to a gem. We shall use this as the basis of a constructed body. You must make a choice, the Lich. Will you take a human body like those of the Warriors of Light? Will you live among us, in which case we must convert your body to pony form?  
**

**Please don't pick the second one, it's really hard**, she added after a moment.

Silent minutes passed.

"Give me human flesh, then," the Lich eventually decided. "I am no horse and never shall be."

**Excellent. We have received a book of human anatomy from the white mage known as Floe. In light of your present condition, we shall begin with creation of the skin, then fill it with the skeleton, major organ systems, and finally musculature. This will be a difficult work of biomancy but we are confident in the result. We begin- ah... will you be male or female?**

"I know not."

**Female will be less effort.**

A glow which was not a glow came from the head of the Princess, and the Lich's new body slowly began to take shape. It was probably for the best that the darkness hid the process from sight.

A few minutes later, the Lich felt a strange sensation. It was... it didn't have any words to describe it.

"I feel odd," it told the Princess. "Perhaps it is that the feeling is odd."

**We have just constructed the sensory apparatus within your nose**, Luna told it. **What you experience is 'smell.' Specifically, you are smelling the results of our subject Pinkie Pie's baking of cupcakes somewhere in the castle. This is always a pleasure.**

The Lich lacked the muscular control to wrinkle the nose. "It is not entirely a pleasant sensation. There is a sense of... burning?"

Luna sniffed, then groaned. **...oh, goodness, it's the hot-sauce cupcakes again. Once we ignored Twilight's advice and tried one. Once. We have not ignored her advice since then.**

A few more minutes passed while Luna worked in silence. The Lich started to feel bits and pieces of the new body fall into place. Prioperception came online: the sense of position said the Lich was lying face-up on a cold stone surface. There was a brief moment of terror as Luna carefully dissolved the phylactery into the brain and implanted magic-dampening crystals on the sides of the head. When the Lich protested, Luna gave a stern lecture about the rights of prisoners, namely the lack thereof.

More time passed in the darkness.

**Right, and finally apply electric impulse to atrioventricular node...** Luna said to herself, tapping her horn in the middle of the Lich's chest. **Floe wrote so many notes in her old textbook. It is of great help to us. Do thank her on our behalf.**

A most peculiar warmth and pulsing sensation suffused the Lich's body.

**A heart beats within you now**, Luna said. **Your life begins. As our subjects would say... happy birthday.**

"'_Happy birthday_'?!" The door to the chamber slammed open, sending light spearing into the Lich's brand-new eyes. Something blurred and pink was standing in the doorway...

"That means it's time for a birthday party! And birthday presents!" the pink entity squealed. "And birthday ca-"

**Pinkie Pie, shut the door**, Luna pleaded, shielding her eyes.

"Whoopsie! Sorry, your highness," and the door closed. With Pinkie Pie still inside, the Lich noted with increasing despair.

She approached the trembling Lich with a steaming baking pan. "Birthday cupcaaakes!"

**Are these the ones with the hot sauce?** Luna made an admirable effort keeping the tremor out of her voice.

"Nope! Made some normal ones, too. I think it's time to sing a song, Princess. Don't you think it's time to sing a song?"

Luna nodded decisively. **...let us party.**

* * *

The Lich found herself remanded to the custody of the Warriors of Light the next morning. She sat hunched over in a corner of the gondola of the hot-air balloon while the four of them looked her over. They were flying east for Mount Gulg, making good time. As several days had passed since the battle in the Cavern of Earth, they were almost there. With Twilight still in the hospital, Rainbow Dash had been the one to bring the Lich through the wardrobe. Rainbow Dash was hovering alongside the balloon now, taking wind measurements.

The Lich was wearing one of Floe's spare robes, although being taller than the white mage it didn't fit well. The fact that her hair was blue, along with her red eyes and very pale skin, betrayed Princess Luna's unfamiliarity with human coloration. The magic dampeners peeked out of the blue hair almost like stubby horns or cat ears.

A name tag marked "**HELLO MY NAME IS** Lizzy the Lich!" was safety-pinned to the front of the robe. It was not in the Lich's handwriting.

"I like the hat," Sabin remarked.

"It was a birthday present from Pinkie Pie," the Lich sighed. An entire family of plush ducklings plus mother duck was sewn to the top of her floppy hat, wobbling around as she spoke. She'd found, to her dismay, that Pinkie had sewn duck calls into the head of each one such that if her head moved sharply enough, they'd start quacking.

"You know..." Satoshi said, "you could stand to lose some weight."

A look of absolute joy slowly crept over Rainbow Dash's face. "Wait, did they just call you fat?"

"I would not say she fully merits the term 'fat'..." Satoshi said diplomatically.

"But you should avoid pastries for a few weeks," Daewoo added. "Months. The Princess apparently decided to... insulate you for protection."

"I am a great and powerful lich, and all that matters to you is my physical attractiveness?" the Lich boggled.

"Lack thereof," Daewoo corrected her.

"The mighty Fiend of Earth is puuuudgy!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she swooped around the balloon.

Sabin was leafing through the sheaf of notes that Luna had made on the body-creation process. "Ah, you will want to hear this. The Princess says your breakouts will last for several weeks due to 'post-initialization hormonal imbalance.'"

The Lich held her hands to her pimpled face as the pegasus continued to orbit the balloon, now singing about cellulite. "These growths are uncomfortable."

Floe wordlessly handed her a jar of face cream.

* * *

"Do you have a report for me, Twilight?" Princess Celestia asked.

Twilight smiled from her hospital bed. "We questioned the Lich after Princess Luna built her new body. She's told us some interesting things..."

"I'm told she has a name now?" Celestia mentioned.

"Yes, Pinkie Pie picked it during her birthday party since she couldn't think of one herself. She's 'Lizzy the Lich' now..."

Celestia smiled. "Alliteration! How nice. What did Lizzy have to say?"

"Briefly: she was an agent of Sir Garland, the knight whom the Warriors had defeated just before I met them. Garland has placed himself in a two-thousand-year time loop. His true form is known as Chaos, and the Four Fiends are emanations of his hatred, but the procedure Princess Luna did to create Lizzy has apparently broken the link to Chaos. We also know the general locations of the other three fiends. Marilith is in Mount Gulg with the Fire Crystal, Kraken is in a sunken shrine with the Water Crystal, and Tiamat guards the Wind Crystal in some kind of flying fortress in the northeast. The Warriors are flying to Mount Gulg now."

"Well done, Twilight." Celestia eyed her bandaged wing, held in position by a little harness. "Are you feeling all right? I hope you aren't upset that Lizzy's done and you're still in the hospital."

"Oh, not at all," Twilight said. "Princess Luna and I compared notes before and after the procedure, and we figured out Lizzy's body is unstable right now. If she doesn't come back for daily checkups and enchantments for the next week or so, she might fall apart! And the treatment gave the poor girl some serious acne. For me, staying in the hospital is the right thing because that means my wing will heal just right."

"And indeed your wing will heal just right," Celestia told her. "I received a report from your doctor just before coming in. You're expected to make a full recovery and be out by tomorrow. I was so glad."

Twilight beamed. "Thank you, Princess!"

Amusement danced in Celestia's eyes. "You're welcome, Princess."

"Oh. Right."


	5. Inventory Menu

Daewoo stared at the look of absolute rapture on Lizzy's face. Then at the half-eaten contents of her hands. Then her face again.

"That is a potato," he eventually said. "That is a raw potato, neither peeled nor washed. It is not a thing which humans eat."

"I am no human, and I care not. This taste is exquisite," she replied.

"'Exquisite,'" Daewoo echoed incredulously.

"Indeed. I find the caked dirt adds a pleasant grit," she explained.

Daewoo sighed. "Where did you find the potato?"

"You have stored a variety of edibles in your provisions, which I have found packed in several sacks. In order to explore the sense of taste, I have decided to sample their contents." Lizzy placed the rest of the potato back in the sack it'd come from and looked for something different.

"An onion! Yes. Now to grasp the concept of 'spiciness,'" she declared. "The Princess Luna would not allow me to taste of Pinkie Pie's hot-sauce yesterday, you see."

"You cannot just devour your way through our supplies!" Daewoo protested. "You don't even have the good manners to finish what you eat!"

"I am the Fiend of Earth and I do as I will. No mere man may command me." Lizzy took a large bite out of the onion. Her eyes began to water, and after a few seconds she broke into full-on weeping.

"Such... beauty suffuses my being," she sobbed. "Fire, fire in my veins. O! I burn."

"Fighting you to the death may have been better than this," Daewoo muttered, wondering where she'd learned to speak like that, anyway.

Lizzy, wiping her tears away, dumped the onion back into the sack and started rummaging again. "Lo, here is salt! I shall learn of 'saltiness.' Have you a spoon? Ah, perhaps bare hands will suffice..."

* * *

"."

The Warriors of Light looked around wildly. Who said that?

"Um..."

A yellow pony was peeking over the edge of the gondola. The fluttering wings on her back marked her as a pegasus.

"Yes?" Satoshi asked.

"Eep!" The pony ducked down out of sight.

"S...sorry to bother you," the now-invisible pony said with a small voice, "but Twilight asked me to deliver some things."'

She reached over the edge of the gondola with a pair of saddlebags. The moment they hit the floor, her foreleg disappeared back over the edge.

"One of the bags has library books Twilight checked out for you. The other one has lunch. She ordered it from a place in Ponyville just for you," the pony said. "I hope you enjoy it."  
Daewoo got up and peered over the edge of the gondola. There was a faint "eep" and the mystery pony dove into the disk-shaped cloud beneath the balloon. Her pink mane was the only thing he saw clearly.

Rainbow Dash swooped over to the cloud and started yelling at it. "Hey! Shouldn't you introduce yourself?"

There was a brief scuffle and the yellow pony found herself grabbed by the hind legs and yanked back up to the balloon.

"Don't worry, they're nice guys," Rainbow Dash told her. "Except for Lizzy, but you already met her."

The lich would have retorted but she was in the middle of drinking olive oil straight out of the jug.

The mystery pony hesitated. "Um."

"Come on," Rainbow Dash cajoled her.

The pony squeaked something unintelligible.

"Come _on_."

"I'm Fluttershy," the pony finally managed to say. "Pleased to meet you but really someone needs me at home and I think I have to be going now-"

"Lunch first," Rainbow Dash said firmly. "I bet Twilight ordered enough for you, too."

The Warriors found the bag to be filled with round bundles wrapped in wax paper. There was, in fact, one for everyone including Fluttershy.

"She got sandwiches from that deli place!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. She unwrapped hers and took a large bite.

Sabin was taken aback by the idea of vegetables on bread- and nothing else- but he decided to give it a try. Well, he thought as he chewed his first bite, at least the vegetables were fresh.

"Dude," Rainbow Dash told him, "you look like you need mustard on that. It should be in the bag somewh- Lizzy! That's enough mustard for seven sandwiches! And it's the extra-hot... how in Equestria can you just drink it like that? At least leave some for Sabin- oh, you don't want it anymore?"

* * *

After lunch, Fluttershy tried to escape again, this time mumbling about some butterfly migration survey.

"I've prepared for this," Rainbow Dash muttered to Satoshi. "Had to search all night, but..."

She whipped around to her friend, interrupting her retreat with a cheesy grin. "Hey, Fluttershy! You can't be going before you've met _our new friend_!"

"New friend?" Fluttershy echoed. "But... there are five new friends right here, aren't there? I already met everypony. Do you mean there's somepony else?"

"Meet number six," Rainbow Dash announced grandly. Part of the cloud hanging beneath the balloon was particularly lumpy. She kicked the lump open.

The erstwhile occupant of that lump blinked. "Kweh?"

Fluttershy took it all in with a glance. Yellow bird with limbs shaped for running but not flying, a grain-eater's beak, feather tufts at head and tail, and a huge body size like she'd never seen. The way the body was shaped, especially the large head and spindly legs, suggested it wasn't full-grown yet either. Her eyes slowly widened.

"Oh, you captured a wild chocobo?" Sabin remarked. "Those are rare in this part of the world. Well done."

"Must be a yearling," Floe added. "They wander at this age."

"A 'chocobo'!" Fluttershy exclaimed, jumping in front of the confused bird's face so quickly she left a vapor trail. "Oh, I am so happy to meet you! Only one year old and you're already so big! Do you have a name?"

The chocobo peered at her owlishly. "Wark."

Fluttershy gasped. "You don't know what a 'name' is? It's a good thing we ran into each other! A name tells you who you are and sometimes what you are. You should know that it's harder to make friends if they don't know your name. My name's Fluttershy, and I'd like to be your friend. Won't you choose a name?"

"Kweh."

Fluttershy nodded slowly. "Well, if you really think you can't, we can pick one for you too."

An animated discussion followed. Rainbow Dash, a bit cranky from lack of sleep, pushed for S.A.B.I.T.A.N.T.A., short for 'Stupid Annoying Bird It Took All Night To Acquire.' She needed some help from Lizzy to make the last word start with a vowel.

"Boco," Satoshi suggested.

Sabin put forward the name "Erdrick" before Fluttershy informed him that the chocobo was female. She just knew, apparently.

Daewoo leaned towards "Big Bird."

Lizzy knew some of the ancient folklore surrounding chocobos. "Horse-claw."

Between them they thought up a dozen names in a dozen minutes.

"Maybe if we thought about what chocobos do," Fluttershy said, thinking intently, "that could help us pick a really good name."

"They are birds of burden," Satoshi told her. "A fully-grown chocobo can take one rider anywhere he wishes at a dead run. They are not native to this region, else everyone would be riding them."

The chocobo was alarmed. "Kweh! Kweh!"

Fluttershy turned back to the chocobo. "No, dear. You don't have to worry about anyone sitting on your back until you're all grown up!"

"Wark?"

"If they're polite-" she directed a glance at the others that contained a bit more steel than they were expecting- "they'll ask you for permission first."

Rainbow Dash's bird-based efforts to bribe Fluttershy into staying turned out to be quite successful. She refused to leave the still-unnamed chocobo until sunset, when all the ponies went home, taking Lizzy with them. A red glow was visible in the eastern sky as they left- the distant lava flows of Mount Gulg.

* * *

"Twilight's at the hospital just now helping Princess Luna with Lizzy, so we'll have to have the meeting without them," Princess Celestia said. "As Twilight would say... Spike? Take a letter."

The baby dragon saluted. "Yes, your majesty!"

"Write down what we talk about," the princess directed him. "You can give the notes to her tomorrow."

Most of what Spike ended up transcribing were variations on "[Fluttershy babbles enthusiastically about 'chocobo' bird]" and "[Rainbow Dash expresses disgust at Lizzy's eating habits]", but there were some new thoughts from the Princesses on the theory of Color Magic that he thought Twilight would find interesting.

* * *

Some market stalls in Ponyville stayed open late into the night in honor of Princess Luna. There weren't many of them at present, but before the Princess's return from the moon not long ago, the number had of course been zero. Every time she saw more stalls open late, Twilight Sparkle felt happy for her friend.

Twilight was out tonight as well, the bandages on her wing shining in the moonlight. She still smelled like disinfectant from the operating room where Princess Luna and she had continued to make adjustments to Lizzy's body. The Princess had sent her home before they were finished, saying she'd done enough for the day.

As she neared home, she caught sight of Fluttershy leaving a grocer's stall. She seemed unusually cheerful, practically glowing.

"What are you up to?" Twilight asked, walking beside her.

"I made an amazing new friend today thanks to Rainbow Dash! She's a really big bird called a 'chocobo,'" Fluttershy said. "Sabin told me that chocobos eat greens. I wanted to see if anything we grew in Ponyville would be fine."

Twilight eyed Fluttershy's shopping basket, containing a good-sized pile of vegetables. "Can one bird eat that much?"

Fluttershy checked the basket nervously. "Normally not, but she's such a very big bird. She's taller than ponies already, and she's not a grown-up yet."

Twilight nodded, impressed. "That's big, all right. Meeting her tomorrow should be interesting."

"Tomorrow? Your wing's all right?"

"Yeah, Princess Celestia said I'd be discharged tomorrow morning. I'm allowed to walk around now if I don't touch the bandages, but they come off first thing tomorrow. So I get to meet, uh..."

"We still haven't decided on a name for her," Fluttershy sighed. "She's having a hard time understanding what names are for. I think she doesn't want one at all."

Twilight nudged her. "Get some sleep, Fluttershy. You can't help her if you're nodding off, and we'll probably have to do some flying tomorrow, too."

"Oh, that's right! See you tomorrow, Twilight Sparkle. Thanks for reminding me."

"Good night to you too." The two ponies went their separate ways.

Just as she reached to open the library door, Twilight heard someone approaching her from behind.

She turned to see that it was Princess Luna. "Twilight, I have just finished Lizzy's follow-up examination."

"Is she all right?" Twilight asked.

"Roughly speaking, yes, but her physical condition remains unpredictable. I've permitted her to return to her world, but I would appreciate it if you would keep her under observation. If that aorta unravels one more time I'll be forced to tear the whole thing out and install a new one." Princess Luna started to grumble about how she expected internal organs to stay where she put them.

Twilight shuddered. Aortic dissection was nothing to joke about.

"I have high hopes that the body will eventually stabilize," Luna assured her.

"That will be the only thing stable about her," Twilight sighed. "You heard what she's been eating."

Luna, having been listening all night to Lizzy's rave reviews of such things as ointment and sealing wax, chuckled.


	6. Tank, DPS, Healer, Fluttershy

Mount Gulg.

"Wow!" Fluttershy murmured to the chocobo as they both looked down from the cloud. "Isn't it amazing?"

"Kwehh!"

The mountain was an active volcano sitting on a circular island in the middle of a similarly circular lake. From the air, the concentric rings of terrain were quite striking. A red glow came from deep within the mouth of the volcano, accompanied by a steady but weak plume of smoke rising into the morning sky.

Satoshi looked up from the book in his hands (_CANTERLOT ROYAL GUARD TACTICAL MANUAL 103: Magical Combined-Arms Operations_), nodded begrudgingly at the volcano, and went back to studying.

Having fully recovered, Twilight Sparkle had come with Fluttershy and Lizzy this morning. "The last time I saw something like this," she said, "there were dragons. Please don't tell me there are dragons here, too."

"The folklore of this region does suggest the presence of fire-aligned dragons within the mountain, yes," Lizzy told her. Twilight slumped.

"How have you come to know all this?" Sabin demanded. "You also spoke of legends yesterday when we tried to name the chocobo."

"I have walked the earth two thousand years since Chaos created me," Lizzy said archly. "We were ordered to wait over a millennium before carrying out our orders. The others slept, but not being alive I had no need to sleep. My orders were to begin my reign of terror after exactly two thousand years; what could I do in the meantime? I... well..."

The lich became uncharacteristically hesitant.

"Oh, just say it," Twilight snapped.

"I would put on a cloak, pretend to be a human, and sneak into taverns," Lizzy admitted. "I enjoyed listening to the stories that people told all across the world. After two thousand years, everything else would simply bore."

"And now you're some kind of folkloric expert?" Twilight asked.

"There is none like me in the world," Lizzy declared with a flourish.

"You've got that right," Daewoo said less than charitably.

Fluttershy still wasn't entirely sure how to approach the Lich and decided to take refuge in extreme politeness. "Pardon me, um, Miss Elizabeth? What else have you heard about Mount Gulg, please?"

"You actually speak to me with proper courtesy! I will answer you," Lizzy said, pleased. "There is a system of caves beneath the mountain proper, partially filled with magma. Various fiery creatures including, yes, dragons dwell there alongside minotaurs, scorpions, and ogres."

"Not more ogres," Daewoo groaned.

Lizzy ignored him. "I know not where Marilith has secreted herself with her Crystal. She is not actually due to wake for another two centuries, which is why I suggested you come here first. I suspect she is in the deepest level of tunnel, and if you approach her carefully you may ambush her."

Fluttershy dipped her head. "Thank you."

"Kweh!" the chocobo interjected.

Fluttershy gasped. "Really? Full speed?"

"Wark wark!"

Fluttershy nodded hesitantly and turned to the others. "Everypony? She wants to go with you to fight Marilith."

Jaws dropped.

The chocobo looked pointedly at Fluttershy, who continued. "She said that she's too young to carry a rider, but that's actually a good thing. Because of that, she can run through narrow tunnels with low ceilings, and she's almost as fast as a grown-up chocobo! She wants to scout the mountain for you."

Twilight asked the question everyone was thinking. "Why?"

"Kwehhhh."

"She's been listening to everypony talking," Fluttershy explained. "She knows you're trying to save the world, so she wants to help."

Twilight frowned. "But-"

"Wark!"

"Aren't you a bit too youn-"

The chocobo met her beak to nose. "_Wark_."

"Isn't she persuasive?" Fluttershy observed.

* * *

In the end, a party of six assembled on the flank of Mt. Gulg. Fluttershy, pale and trembling, stood beside a much more confident-looking chocobo and the four Warriors of Light.

What kept Twilight from going with them was, unsurprisingly, Lizzy; this time she'd developed an uncontrollable twitch in her eyelid and so it was back to Princess Luna for emergency neuromuscular maintenance. Twilight slipped Fluttershy a note before chivvying Lizzy away.

After the two of them had returned to Ponyville, the others scouted the mountain, looking for cave entrances. Mount Gulg was black and bare of vegetation thanks to the periodic lava flows. In a barren environment like this, Fluttershy lamented, there wouldn't be any interesting animals to meet. The Warriors of Light were more worried about the lack of cover.

After an exhaustive survey of the base of the mountain, Floe was worried about something else as well: "Where's the chocobo?"

The not-so-little bird still hadn't returned. Before Fluttershy could panic, a yellow-feathered head poked out of a distant hole in the mountain. "Kweh!"

"You already found the Fiend of Fire?!" Fluttershy gasped.

For a creature with no eyebrows and a rigid beak, the chocobo managed to put an incredibly smug expression on her face as she returned to them. Squawk by squawk, she helped Fluttershy reconstruct a rough map of the inside of the volcano. As expected, Marilith was holed up in one of the deepest chambers next to the Fire Crystal.

"She has six arms and a snake's tail," Fluttershy translated for the chocobo. "Each hand is, um, already holding a sword even though Marilith is still asleep."

"Attacking her while she's sleeping doesn't seem very nice," she added hesitantly.

"She's here to destroy the world," Daewoo retorted. "She commands the Fire Crystal within the largest volcano in the world. When the balance of the elements is tipped as the Fiends desire, what do you think will happen?"

"The volcano will erupt?" Fluttershy guessed.

"Only 'erupt?' That would be good fortune indeed. No, I fully expect a titanic explosion, the mountain annihilated, and the entire continent covered in lava. The fire is lovely to imagine in an abstract way, but the death toll..."

"Oh," Fluttershy said in an even smaller voice than usual.

Daewoo waved his finger. "So, little horse, I'd say we're justified in being a little rude just this once."

"You are a little rude all of the time," Sabin observed.

Daewoo wasn't even embarrassed. "Of course, but this time we're all of us going to have to be discourteous to the Fiend. Stuffing attack magic down the throat often offends."

Fluttershy wilted.

"Oh, don't worry," Sabin told her. "There's no way you're fighting! You're only even coming along to watch the chocobo, isn't that right?"

* * *

Fluttershy shrunk in on herself as the battle raged in front of her. A swarm of huge scorpions had already been waiting for them just past the entrance, and it only went downhill as they proceeded downward into the depths of the mountain caves.

While the chocobo showed herself capable of slipping past the monsters as she had done on her first scouting trip, the rest of the party had to stand and fight a nearly-continuous battle, simultaneously advancing through enemy resistance and avoiding the occasional lava pool in the cave floor.

They were holding up fairly well, thanks to Satoshi's studies that morning. Adapting a strategy used by unicorn-earth pony formations, he put the fighter in the front and the mages in the back. This meant that Sabin would draw as many enemy attacks as possible while the mages healed him and cast offensive magic without having to worry about defense.

The chocobo emerged from among the enemies, a flaming shield on her back and a icy sword in her beak. She tossed both to Satoshi and ran back down the corridor to loot more treasure chests.

"The Icebrand!" Satoshi breathed, hefting the sword and admiring its ice-coated blade. "Its legend is minor but it is a legend nonetheless. My gratitude, bird."

"Kweh!" the departing chocobo called.

"Oh, right." Satoshi dodged an incoming strike and went back to fighting, this time with his new sword. The shield he left on the ground with a pile of looted heavy armor. None of them could wear it, so they were planning to sell it after confronting Marilith.

The chocobo returned again, maneuvering several bulging bags of gil through the melee. She trotted proudly up to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy passed her a stalk of celery from the groceries she'd bought. The bird cheerfully munched away and listened to her as she worried.

"I don't know," Fluttershy said, her head low. "This is just... horrible. All this fighting..."

"Taste the lightning!" Daewoo cackled. Reflected yellow radiance flickered on the walls of the cave passage.

The chocobo swallowed the last of her celery. "Kweh." She nuzzled Fluttershy's neck with her beak, then ran ahead through the monsters to raid more treasure chests.

Fluttershy unfolded Twilight's note as the chocobo had suggested. On it was written a short message.

* * *

_Fluttershy,_

_I let you be sent on this mission in this volcano full of creatures because I know you can help if things get really bad! How? Two words:_

_THE STARE_

_If it comes down to it, you can do it, Fluttershy! You can help save this world, too!_

_Your friend, Twilight Sparkle_

_PS Listen, if you end up having to use The Stare before I get back from Ponyville... I'd appreciate any information you manage to collect, if you have a chance: which creatures listen to you, whether they understand our language, things like that. There's a data sheet on the back. Thanks!_

* * *

Fluttershy flipped it over to see an empty chart annotated with Twilight's neat writing.

"I'm not that good at science," she sighed. She fervently hoped that the running battle against the volcano's monsters wouldn't go so badly that Twilight would end up getting her data.

Her hopes turned out to be in vain. The next floor down, Sabin was no longer able to hold up the monsters, which managed to ignore his provocations long enough to push past him and strike at the two mages and, more importantly, the healer.

Floe barely had time to ready her warhammer before a dragon was on her, and the stream of Cures keeping Sabin alive died away.

Daewoo and Satoshi fell back, then fell down as enemies struck their retreating backs.

A deep roaring grew in Fluttershy's ears, and the edges of her vision shaded red. She put one hoof forward.

"What," she said in a voice that cut through the uproar, "do you all think you're **doing**?!"

Weapons froze mid-maul, snarling mouths closed, and blinking bestial eyes turned to her. All was silent. She fixed them all with a glare that could freeze lava.

"The Fiend of Fire is going to explode this entire volcano!" Fluttershy yelled. "We came here to stop her from destroying your home, and you think it's a good idea to drag us down and try to kill us? I don't think so! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves! Don't you have any thought for your safety? Can't you think about your families and everyone else who lives in this mountain? Go find them and get away in case the volcano erupts!"

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she roared when none of the monsters did anything. "You need to evacuate to safety right now! We can't save the mountain with you just standing here, you know!"

The mixed crowd of dragons, scorpions, and other beasts backed away slowly. Some of them, looking guilty, picked up their wounded and dead.

"Thank you," Fluttershy said to the backs of the fleeing monsters.

The sheer sense of presence that had hung around her lifted away, leaving only the little yellow pony from before. Her mane drooped as gravity, and common sense, took hold again. The Warriors of Light picked themselves off the cave floor, not sure what to say.

"We should hurry before the Fiend wakes up," Fluttershy said softly. "If... if you want to."

"A fearsome power," Sabin said, his face white and not just from the blood loss.

Floe's hands were trembling so much it took her three tries to land a Cure on him.

"Um, I just got a little angry," Fluttershy mumbled. "I'm really sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Satoshi wheezed from his personal crater, gifted him by an encounter with the floor and a minotaur's fist. "Well done."

He lay hands on himself, casting his healing magic in a glow of green, then rose shakily to his feet. The other three Warriors, with Floe's help, were also back on their feet.

The chocobo appeared, this tiime with only a single sack of gil held in her beak, apparently having already looted every chest she could find. Seeing the corridor completely empty of foes, her lower beak dropped in astonishment and the gil fell to the floor with a clatter.

"Indeed," Sabin muttered. The concepts of 'almighty' and 'adorable' (yes, he'd started to admit it) were doing an intimate and rather awkward tango in his mind. He needed a drink. Or a dozen.

"Don't worry about it," Satoshi said to the chocobo. "Now, let us advance."

Advance they did, the chocobo leading the way, diverting occasionally to avoid a lava pool. Nothing stopped them, though there were often signs of recently-fled creatures, and the sound of hasty escapes accompanied them through the rest of the mountain.

* * *

Marilith lay sprawled before them in one of the mountain's deepest chambers, coiled around the great Fire Crystal and fast asleep. As the chocobo had mentioned, a wicked-looking scimitar rested in each of the Fiend's six hands. Although her upper body looked like that of a woman, her reddish skin and unnaturally thin face marked her as inhuman. Her long blonde hair wavered slightly as she snored.

"Let us steal the swords and bind her wrists," Daewoo suggested in a whisper.

"She would hardly be disarmed," Sabin countered. "There are records at my monastery of those who have fought the naga. Their tails are worth an extra arm or two in combat, and are almost impossible to bind."

"We've tried negotiation once," Satoshi said. "If we tried ag-"

The tip of a scimitar suddenly sprouted from his shoulder.

"I wake," a voice hissed. "You ssleep. Forever."

The Marilith had awoken. She withdrew her dripping blade from Satoshi's side and drew back, the coils of her snakelike tail making a hissing of their own as they slid away from the Fire Crystal. Her six scimitars fanned out in a threatening display.

Satoshi clamped a glowing green hand over his bleeding shoulder. "Would you be willing to-"

The Marilith cut him off. "No sspeech. Only death." She advanced slowly.

"The negotiations were short," Satoshi groaned as he continued to heal. The other three Warriors made ready.

Fluttershy and the chocobo tried their best to bodily merge with the rear wall of the cave.

"Staff," Sabin said curtly, holding out a hand.

The chocobo had found a cheap wooden staff among the other treasures in the mountain. She paused in her attempt to turn invisible in order to grab it in her beak and toss it at his back. Sabin caught it without looking, then sprang forward at the Marilith. He met her dance of blades with his staff, parrying unedged parts of her scimitars when he could. Deep cuts started to appear one by one on the gradually splintering staff, but it looked like he could hold her off for a few minutes, especially when he took the occasional hit himself to preserve his weapon. With white mage support, he could afford a serious injury every few minutes.

"Even when we work as a team he makes sure to stand alone," Daewoo grumbled, preparing a spell.

"Fewer injuries for us," Satoshi shrugged, preparing another. "I for one am grateful."

Blasts of fire and lightning joined the battle as the two mages opened up on their target.

Floe silently gritted her teeth, weaving about as she tried to keep Sabin in line of sight for her healing spells.

There was a loud clang and one of the Marilith's scimitars embedded itself in the ceiling with a shower of sparks. Sabin had had to sacrifice one foot's worth of the end of his staff to pull that off, but one fewer blade was one-sixth less battle strength.

Another scimitar went flying away and Sabin's staff fell to pieces in his hands.

"Red mage, I leave her to you!" he yelled as he retreated. His fists, though mighty, were not the best choice for parrying swords.

Satoshi was a bit annoyed that Sabin was still setting the pace but he stepped forward, Icebrand in a two-handed grip. With one blade against four, his fencing skills were just good enough that Floe could keep up with the speed at which he took injuries. Every adventurer knew and dreaded that state where the life being pumped into you by a white mage only just matched the life flowing out through your cuts and bruises. The positive and the negative equaled and canceled out, leaving only pain.

Sabin circled around to the Marilith's back, thinking about doing something about that tail. The Marilith wasn't stupid; before he could strike, she swept her tail around in a great circle. Sabin's natural agility allowed him to jump right over it but Satoshi was caught in the shins and thrown into the far wall, making a spiderweb of cracks on impact.

Having dodged the attack, Sabin tried to press his luck. The Fiend of Fire wasn't having any of it and cast a wall of magical fire around her. He stumbled back, his uniform smoldering.

Meanwhile, at the back of the cave, Fluttershy was shielding the chocobo's eyes from this horrific scene of violence. She was helped along by the fact that the chocobo had decided to put a wing over Fluttershy's eyes herself. Both were trembling in unison.

Daewoo was in trouble. Sabin was still putting himself out and Floe was busy healing Satoshi. This made him the only threatening target, and both he and Marilith realized it at the same time.

"I knew I should have purchased some of that fifth-level magic at Melmond," he groaned. All he had was first-level Fire and Thunder, and those were barely causing her to flinch.

She had two hands free due to Sabin's disarming tricks, and this meant magic. Both empty hands thrust out at Daewoo, paralyzing him with a burst of power. With the black mage immobilized and ready for slaughter, the Fiend didn't waste any time but sprang forward with her four remaining blades-

"Really, madam," somepony said with just the right amount of condescension, "what _have_ you done with your hair?"

Completely blindsided, the Marilith tripped over her tail and fell face first to the ground.

Standing in the entrance to the chamber was a white unicorn. Unlike the Marilith's ragged do, her long purple mane was perfectly coiffed. Fluttershy was the only one who could see that she was doing a masterful job of keeping her knees from shaking.

"Rarity!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "You came?"

Rarity tossed her head. "Oh, Twilight asked me to guard the balloon while she and Princess Luna treated Lizzy. When I saw all these creatures escaping from the volcano, I decided something important must be happening! I got a hold of Rainbow Dash and she absolutely re-_fused_ to go underground, there was no reasoning with her, so that meant she got the balloon and I had to come investigate myself. Of course, I waited until the perfect moment to make my entrance. I must say that..."

Meanwhile, the Marilith's temporary confusion gave the Warriors an opportunity. While Floe dragged Daewoo away to recover, Satoshi and Sabin descended on the Fiend with fists and Icebrand.

"...the way these humans approach robes is absolutely fascinating! Since they always stand on two legs, that means the fabric must fall in a completely different way. Look at them! Oh, the implications! I'm so glad I had the idea beforehand to prepare a human-shaped mannequin back at the boutique- the things our Warriors here are wearing are... practical... yes, but warriors should be fashionable too, don't you think, Fluttershy?"

"If you say so," Fluttershy said.

In the confused melee in front of them, the Marilith lost three more of her swords, leaving her with just one. She changed tactics, lashing out and grabbing Sabin by the neck with the end of her tail, then using him as a club to bludgeon Satoshi. A warhammer to the back of her head put an end to that, though Floe took a tail to the chest in return. Daewoo rejoined the fight, casting more fire spells to cover Satoshi and Sabin's renewed advance.

"...tell me if you've gotten a good look at the sewing on those robes, Fluttershy? I do recall you're quite well-versed in sewing techniques."

"Well..."

"Come on, tell Rarity."

Fluttershy's voice sped up. "_All right. The big problem is that the clothes get torn up and worn out because they're always fighting. They do almost everything with really basic running stitches, I think because it's cheapest, and there's lots and lots of darning for the holes and tears..._"

The Marilith unleashed another spell, this time blinding everyone near her. With Satoshi's Equestrian-adapted tactics, this meant only he and Sabin were affected, as Daewoo and Floe were too far back. Satoshi had an idea- he blindly groped out in Sabin's direction, catching him by the sleeve, then pulled both of them to the ground. With them unable to fight, he reasoned, they should clear the way for those who still could. Daewoo rose to the occasion, hurling blasts of fire and bolts of lightning over their backs at the Fiend. Floe chose instead to hurl her warhammer, catching the Marilith squarely in the chest. She fell back, winded.

"Do you think it's all right to be talking about clothes while everypony else is fighting?" Fluttershy asked. Rarity had yet to take a single step out of the entrance of the cave.

Rarity lowered her voice. "Listen, when I was on my way down here I had some time to think. I must admit neither of us can fight very well. I mean, I've been known to land some good kicks from time to time, and you've got The Stare, and from what I saw on the way here you've been using it... Good job, by the way. But I'm trying to say that fighting back home simply doesn't compare to what the humans have got to deal with here, especially right now. Coming here, I was thinking you must have been absolutely petrified. Certainly I am! But if we talked about more pleasant things, I thought... it wouldn't be so bad."

"Oh," Fluttershy said. "Thank you."

Rarity apparently hadn't been quiet enough. "Useless talking horses!" Sabin roared, attempting an armbar on the Marilith while being given a half-nelson in turn. "At least be of some help!"

Fluttershy squeaked.

"Ah- I spoke in anger," Sabin admitted gruffly. "I apologize."

No stalactites on the ceiling, Rarity noted with some disappointment. She'd thought maybe she could try that technique Twilight used against Archimboldo the Lean. Still... with Sabin grappling the Marilith, the Fiend was relatively immobile. Distraction wouldn't work a second time, but...

"I-_de_-a_!_" Rarity exclaimed. Using her magic, she managed to get a hold of the Marilith's final sword and wrench it from her hand.

"I'm afraid that's really all I can do," she yelled apologetically.

"Well, it isn't nothing," Sabin grumbled. He yawped as the Marilith, with one extra free hand, managed to execute a hip throw on him.

"Out of mana," Floe announced, retrieving her hammer.

Satoshi cursed. "No more healing. We end this now!"

He took a gamble and stepped in next to Sabin, joining the grapple. Daewoo, frustrated with the Marilith's resistance to fire and lightning, did so as well. With six arms against six arms, the tiring Marilith found herself equally matched. She still had one free limb left; seeing a risk and an opportunity, Rarity magically dropped a boulder on the end of the Marilith's tail, then convinced Fluttershy and the chocobo to sit on it with her.

"Yield," Satoshi growled. "We have you now. Yield, or die."

The Marilith snarled and tried, and barely failed, to bite his face.

"Once more I ask that you yield," Satoshi said.

The Marilith had not spoken a single word since the beginning of the battle, and she remained silent now.

Satoshi looked over at Floe and gave her a single grim nod.

The white mage swung her hammer. It made a wet, painful sound on impact with the side of the Marilith's head.

"Yield," Satoshi said one final time.

The dazed Marilith clamped her jaws around his arm, only to have her grip broken with Floe's second strike.

"You have chosen your fate," Satoshi decided. The ponies and chocobo looked away and covered their eyes.

With her third swing, Floe brought that fate to pass.

* * *

In the end, they decided on a simultaneous burial and cremation for the Marilith. Fluttershy stood silently, her head bowed, as the Fiend's remains sank into the lava pool.

Sabin sat down beside her at a safe distance from the lava. "You're apologizing," he said.

Fluttershy nodded.

The monk set his hands in his lap. "A kindness to her, but an unnecessary one..."

"She was... somebody," Fluttershy said sadly. "She could talk. She had feelings. Just like Lizzy."

"And she fought to end the world," Sabin told her. "Unlike with the Lich, we could not persuade her to stop and take another way. To the very end, she wished for us all to die at her hand."

He looked up at the ceiling of the cave. "It's a hard truth that all warriors learn. Not everyone can live. Not everyone can be saved, not in this world. It seems, though, in yours..."

Fluttershy didn't say anything.

"You and your people are blessed," Sabin said. "You have seen how we live and die who lack this blessing, and we ourselves are gladdened to see that somewhere out there, people such as you live in harmony. Remember, and cherish it the more."

He briefly lay a hand on Fluttershy's shoulder, then rose.

"Come, Element of Kindness. It's time we left. Your mountain creatures will want to return to their homes."


	7. Side Quest

The balloon flew west with four humans, their friends, and Lizzy lounging on the cloud beneath. With Twilight Sparkle finally being able to spend a full day with the Warriors of Light, she'd shared the wealth with the cloud-walking spell she'd learned for visiting Cloudsdale. Today, it was she, Lizzy, and Rarity flying with them. Fluttershy had taken the chocobo home with her to meet her other animal friends.

The decision to go to Elfland, of all places, had not been a random one. They'd known from the beginning that the next Fiend would be much harder to find. Lizzy suspected an old city, Rulye, in the northwest which didn't appear on any modern maps. Her command of folklore and legend suggested to her that rumors of vast undersea ruins might have something to do with the city, but she had no idea where those ruins actually were, either. If anyone could possibly know a legend she didn't, she said, it would have to be an elf. They always had the best stories, when they could be convinced to tell them.

Satoshi set the course, having become better at finding good winds without Rainbow Dash always there. She had had to step down as navigator after the Ponyville weather patrol got to asking where their loudest employee had gone.

"A real quest!" Daewoo said contentedly as he lay on the cloud. "Finally we can spend a night on the ground. In a tavern, if there's any luck."

"Adventuring questers carousing in taverns, indeed," Lizzy said. "A hallowed tradition."

"There's certainly a place for innovation," Sabin admitted, letting a fistful of cloud dribble through his fingers, "but really, it's been too long since my last bar brawl."

"Drinking and brawling?" Daewoo asked. "I thought you monks were under vows."

"We vow to preserve and perpetuate our art," Sabin said primly. "Presenting my skills to the rough-and-tumble is a means to that end."

"If you can't beat him, join him?" Twilight asked.

"Broadly speaking," Sabin agreed. He twitched. "Do be careful with that thing, little horse!"

"But I can't tailor for you if you aren't measured," Rarity said. She approached him again with the measuring tape. "Since I'll be doing all my sewing back at the shop, I simply must get as many measurements as I can to make up for not having you there. Now, if you would please extend your left arm?"

Meanwhile, Satoshi put down his sextant and squinted at Lizzy who was trying, and failing, to fit a piece of the cloud in her mouth.

"A question for you," he said. "I must be blunt: how is it that you have yet to rise against us?"

Lizzy shrugged. "I am in a completely powerless position. My magic is sealed, my body is weak and unreliable, and I am surrounded by absolutely fearsome mages-" she paused- "into whose number you do not figure! I observe, however, that while I cannot fight, neither am I to be killed. Therefore I have resolved to abandon my cause and lie about, eating all of your food and insulting you. And, I suppose, telling stories at the bidding of those absolutely fearsome mages. I think I shall quite enjoy this."

"Fiend," Satoshi grumbled.

Lizzy smiled. "It is good to be acknowledged."

* * *

Elves had eyes as sharp as their ears were pointy, and one didn't have to be Lizzy, Fiend of Cultural Anthropology to have learned this fact. To keep the elves from spotting their balloon or the unusual cloud beneath it, Satoshi took them on a northerly course over the sea. He planned to eventually turn south to hide in a mountain range to the west of Elfheim, the elvish capital. The question of how to get the Warriors of Light to Elfheim was conveniently answered along the way, while they were still over open sea.

"Isn't that a pirate ship down there?" Sabin asked. The ship below them was leaving a long white wake on the sea, glowing under the evening sun.

Satoshi squinted through his shiny new binoculars- Twilight had brought over a crateful. "Yes," he said, "It flies the skull and crossbones."

"Let's ride it," Daewoo said.

After some discussion, that was what they did. Twilight teleported herself and Sabin down to the crow's nest when the lookout's back was turned. He didn't get the chance to turn around before Sabin took him down. Twilight teleported the other three over as well, then watched from back in the sky as the four of them got into a chaotic but one-sided brawl with the pirates. Cutlasses and grog-stained fists didn't measure up to a trained monk backed up by three magicians. When they'd worked their way through about half the crew, the pirate captain stepped in and ordered the rest to withdraw.

"Avast!" he cried. "How didjer get on my ship?"

"That would be telling," Satoshi said. He slowly and conspicuously sheathed his blade.

"Me crew's getting keelhauled, and no mistake," the captain said. "What a fight! But I must notice yer haven't killed anybody..."

Decades of rough seas and rough men had given him a crude but effective intuition. He squinted. "Ye wants something, I can tell. What is it?"

"To be brought to Elfland's shores," Satoshi said. "That's all."

The captain laughed. "Is that it? That's three hours' sailing! Someone who fights like you, you'll have yer passage straightaway."

He turned to his crew. "Arr, we sail for Elfland!"

"Aye, Cap'n Bikke!" the conscious members of the crew cried.

Bikke smacked a hand down on Sabin's shoulder. "On one condition, that is..."

He grinned through his filthy beard. "We fights, just you and I! Win or lose I'll take you to Elfland, but first we fights!"

Sabin gave him a sympathetic look. "A long time since your last brawl?"

"Arrrr!" was all Bikke said in reply. He tossed his hat to his first mate and clenched his fists and teeth.

"Hyah!" Sabin dropped into a defensive stance. Up on her cloud, Twilight just shook her head.

"Men," Lizzy said succinctly.

Twilight chuckled. Only a few days into womanhood and the former lich was already fitting into her new gender just fine.

"Tell me about it, sister," Rarity agreed.

Lizzy looked hopefully over at Twilight. "Now, princess, I am told that 'pop-corn' is consumed in your culture at times like these...?"

Twilight rolled her eyes but trotted over to the wardrobe, still buried in the cloud. She poked her head inside. "Hey, Pinkie Pie! Pirate fight, bring the popcorn!"

A faint "eeee!" came from inside the cupboard.

Rarity looked up from the sketchpad she'd been using to furiously record everything the pirates were wearing. "Please tell her not to add too much butter, dear. I must watch my weight, you know."

"And some low-fat popcorn for Rarity," Twilight added. She returned to the edge of the cloud and her binoculars.

Bikke and Sabin were circling around each other on the widest part of the ship's deck, trying to look as intimidating as possible without actually touching each other. From the way their mouths were moving, Twilight guessed they were making all sorts of grunts and yells.

Satoshi and Daewoo sat on some nearby barrels, trying to look as dignified as possible. Floe, on the other hand, had joined in with a crowd of cheering pirates. It was probably only the weight of her warhammer that kept her from jumping up and down with them.

"That white mage must love her fist fights," Twilight observed.

"I suspect it's her ancestry," Lizzy said, but didn't elaborate.

Pinkie Pie erupted from the cloud with several bowls of fresh popcorn. "Pirate fight, pirate fight! Did I miss anything?"

"Ssh, they'll hear us," Rarity said.

"The true battle has yet to begin," Lizzy said, handing a pair of binoculars to Pinkie and grabbing two entire bowls of popcorn for herself.

She gave a meaningful look to Twilight, who started to take notes. "I have seen many fights in my time, so I can explain. See how they are still fully-clothed? There will be no fighting yet."

The ponies and their pimply prisoner watched as the two fighters continued to circle each other. The pirates and the white mage had formed a rough ring around them, still cheering. Suddenly, Bikke tore off his shirt, revealing a scarred and muscular chest. He flexed, the hair on his chest bristling.

"And here are the opening pleasantries now," Lizzy commented.

Sabin stripped off his martial arts uniform and flung it at an incredulous Satoshi, leaving him only wearing shorts. Unlike Bikke, his chest had no hair, and his muscles were smaller but still well-defined. He flexed as well.

"While human martial arts schools prefer a bowing ritual, the practice we see here is acknowledged by the majority of menfolk," Lizzy added. "With the baring of the chests, physical contact may begin."

The barechested fighters charged at each other. Sabin threw a haymaker which Bikke took full in the face, not even bothering to dodge. He was thrown back several feet. A bit of blood trickled from his nose as he stood up, but he was grinning even wider than when he'd asked for the fight.

"I've seen this practice many times as well," Lizzy told the ponies. "As a show of bravado, this pirate has taken an attack from Sabin without offering resistance. The less pain he shows, the tougher he appears. This also gives him an opportunity to gauge his opponent's strength. If Sabin has realized this, it is likely that he pulled his punch as a deceptive tactic."

She eyed her bowl of popcorn. "That is all the commentary I have for you. My food grows cold."

Bikke lashed out with a fist to Sabin's chest. Sabin doubled over, the wind clearly knocked out of him, but he managed to unbend himself and get back into a fighting stance. He nodded once, sharply.

"And that was Sabin's turn," Twilight concluded.

Lizzy nodded. Her cheeks were bulging with popcorn by now.

Rarity gaped at how Lizzy was letting herself go, horrified and just a little envious.

Both fighters stepped back for a moment, loosening up their limbs and bending their heads to crack the joints in their necks.

"Ready..." Pinkie Pie said.

Bikke held his two fists out in front of him.

"...steady..." Pinkie continued.

Sabin thrust one hand forward and held the other back. His fingers were bent, but he didn't form fists.

"...go!" Pinkie said, bouncing up and down.

Her timing was perfect; the two fighters crashed into each other like oncoming freight trains.

It quickly got uninteresting for the audience up above. The two fighters had chosen to grapple, and from up on the cloud even with binoculars all they could see was a rapidly shifting mass of tumbling bodies and flailing limbs.

Sabin finally managed to pin Captain Bikke to the deck, only to receive a headbutt to the jaw. The kerfuffle resumed.

They broke apart after a few minutes, both of them bloodied and bruised. Their sweat-soaked chests heaved as they breathed in great gasps.

Even after all this, Captain Bikke was still grinning. He gave Sabin a sloppy salute.

As if on cue, the monk lunged forward with a flash and just as quickly returned to where he was. Captain Bikke froze for a moment, then fell over backward, barely being caught by his first mate. He did not get up. Sabin went back to breathing normally as if nothing had just happened.

The shout of the crowd could be heard even up at the balloon.

"Mmmmfh," Lizzy said, her eyebrows arched. "Pfmmm!"

"Swallow," Twilight told her.

Lizzy swallowed. "Fascinating," she said. "That does not often happen."

"What did happen?" Twilight asked.

"Sabin was much stronger than the pirate but allowed him the courtesy of a relatively even-matched fight. I suspect the pirate realized this and, with that salute, was conveying to Sabin that he had had his fun and was willing for the fight to end. Sabin then spared him the indignity of a protracted defeat and knocked him out in one blow- so quickly, I may add, that I could not tell you which part of his body he used to do it. On the whole, an informative exhibition of the concepts of honor used by violent men."

"Thank you, that's really interesting," Twilight said, scribbling away. "A fighting style and philosophy I've never seen before!"

"You may not see it again," Lizzy warned her. "Chaos and the two remaining Fiends are not given to fighting in the ways of men- neither was I, you may recall."

"That's such a relief," Rarity said. "Could you imagine what would happen to my shirts if they kept tearing them off for every fight? Goodness! All the hard work I'm about to do, wasted!"

Beneath them, the pirate ship set sail for Elfland. Twilight set a course for the mountains.

* * *

They'd arranged a rendezvous in a wooded area west of Elfheim city in one week, by which time it was hoped that the Warriors of Light would have learned the location of Rulye and whether the Kraken was there. Since it would take much less time than that for the ponies to get there, Twilight got to take a break.

Back in Ponyville...

"Must have more!" Lizzy gasped.

"Oh, you liked _A Revisionist Equestrian History_?" Twilight asked. "That same author also compiled a record of pre-Nightmare Millennial cultural practices."

Lizzy held up her arms. "Bring it here!"

"Always glad to have a scholar use my library," Twilight sighed, and levitated out another set of volumes from the shelves. The former Lich was sprawled on the floor of Twilight's library, surrounded by a slowly-growing pile of books. With the days Twilight had had to take off from work, she already had a lot of cataloging and reshelving to do, and Lizzy was only making it worse. On the other hand, the woman was getting her research on, and who was Twilight to stand in the way of that?

Apparently, getting in the way was to be left to Rainbow Dash, who barged in through the library door. "Hey, Lizzy!"

"Rainbow Dash," Lizzy acknowledged neutrally. She wasn't sure she liked the look in that pegasus's eyes.

Rainbow Dash hopped on top of the book pile, ignoring Twilight's protests, and stared down at Lizzy. "So Princess Luna said we're supposed to look after you and that made me think. All you've done for the past few days is lie around and eat like a parasprite, and that can't be good for you. You... oh, I'll just say it. You're fat! And if you get even fatter it's going to be some kind of health problem!"

"What is one more problem with my body?" Lizzy retorted. "At my last diagnostic visit with Her Majesty we discovered disord-"

"Shut up we're going running," Rainbow Dash broke in. "It's good for you and I need a workout, too. Up up up come-on-let's-go!"

She dragged the protesting ex-fiend out the door, then poked her head back in. "Hey, Twilight. Wanna come with?"

Twilight looked at all the books she still had to reshelve. So many books. Piles and piles and piles of books and Spike had the day off... "Sure."

The three of them trotted on down the streets of Ponyville, drawing a few stares from the townsponies. Lizzy was already beginning to sweat.

"Hey, I got an idea," Rainbow Dash said. "Since there's no way Lizzy's enjoying this, why don't you bribe her with some kind of tradition-ey thing like you're always talking about?"

"Oh!" Twilight said. "Come to think of it..."

"Sweet!" Rainbow Dash said. "Knew you'd have something."

"My brother- you haven't met him- he's the captain of the royal guard," Twilight said to Lizzy. "He's told me that the guardsponies have a tradition of chanting things while they run to keep time."

"That is a common custom," Lizzy gasped. "What do I care?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "I will teach them to you."

Lizzy managed to brighten up even though she was still running. "Now I care."

"This one's a call-and-response chant which commemorates a battle in the Crystal Empire one thousand years ago. I'll sing it first and then we can do it together: _I don't know but I've been told / Sombra's butt is freezing cold_..."

"Hey, I remember that guy," Rainbow Dash muttered.

* * *

Elvish roads were fairly narrow but straight and well-kept. The marching was easy, and so the Warriors decided to travel all the way to Elfheim on foot.

By the time the smoke from the chimneys of Elfheim was visible on the horizon, though, Satoshi couldn't take it anymore.

"You know we can tell you're there," he shouted. "Why are you following us? We're not leaving until you come out and explain yourselves."

After several awkward minutes of silence, two ragged-looking pirates came out from the trees along the side of the road.

"Who are you?" Satoshi demanded.

"Fafhrd," the taller pirate said.

"Mouse," the shorter pirate added. "We didn't want to sail with Bikke anymore since he was so easily bested. You seemed more interesting."

"Your accent," Sabin observed. "That is no pirate-speech."

'Mouse' froze.

"Forgot something?" Daewoo sniggered.

"Your voice sounds elvish," Floe observed. "Elf."

"Never mind the plan, then," 'Mouse' muttered to 'Fafhrd.'

"All right, I'll ask again," Satoshi sighed. "Who are you?"

"Zest, mercenary fighter," 'Fafhrd' admitted.

"Sauber," the elf said. "I'm also a mercenary, but unlike Zest here I rely on my speed and flexibility. In human languages you'd call me..."

"Thief," Floe said. "Of the Elfin Thieves' Guild."

"Loosely speaking, yes, but a better translation is 'rogue,'" Sauber insisted. "You've caught us by surprise, but in truth we were hoping to speak with you..."

It came out that a coup had just occurred in Elfland; Astos of the Dark Elves had put the prince of the elves into an enchanted sleep. While he'd immediately disappeared afterward, his influence was heavily felt on both domestic affairs and the general mood in the streets. Sauber, one of the best thieves in Elfland, had been sent with his human partner Zest to seek help from Elfland's largest neighbor, Cornelia. They'd snuck on board Bikke's pirate ship to minimize chances of Dark Elf agents noticing their departure.

"This is no coincidence," Sabin said darkly. "We four hail from Cornelia, and we arrive here within days of this villain's rise?"

"It's the crystals," Satoshi guessed. "We are being guided."

"Manipulated?" Daewoo speculated.

"Crystals?" Sauber asked.

Satoshi shook his head. "Don't worry about the crystals. It would appear we are fated to aid you, though it seems this battle will have to be fought without the purple mage or her interesting friends."

Zest quirked an eyebrow. "Purple-"

Satoshi held up a hand. "Later. Now what can you tell us about King Astos? What are his powers and where was he last seen?"


	8. Non-Player Characters

"We must make a decision," Satoshi declared. "When we arrive at Elfheim, do we devote all our efforts to finding Astos, or also gather the information needed for our mission?"

"No-one knows you're coming," Sauber reminded him. "You are completely unknown to Astos's agents. Let us maintain this state of affairs as long as possible. I say you pose as a party of scholars- you are mages, after all- and openly inquire after the legends of Rulye. Zest and I already have contacts with the remaining members of the royal household, and they will have the best intelligence on Dark Elvish movements."

"If you are found out," Sabin asked, "how can we aid you?"

"Three scholars are as good as four," Floe suddenly said. "I instead will disguise myself and trail after the fighter and the thief- if asked, I am pursuing a bounty on their heads. It then gives me license to join and interfere in any battle they may face."

"You're oddly eager to do that," Daewoo noted.

"It's a chance to bother elves," Floe said. For once, she smiled.

"You are oddly knowledgeable about elves," Satoshi observed.

"I am half-dwarfish," Floe admitted. "On my mother's side. She taught me: 'Annoying an elf is its own reward.' I kind of like elves, but tradition is tradition."

There was a brief silence. Yes, it was well-known that there was little love lost between elves and dwarves, but... a half-dwarf? It did make sense, Satoshi reflected, given her short stature, her penchant for warhammers, and appreciation for fistfights, but a dwarfish-human mix didn't happen every decade.

Daewoo scratched his head. "That relationship... how does that work, exactly?"

"My parents love each other very much," Floe insisted.

Daewoo raised a finger. "But... well." He gave up.

That was a real conversation-ender.

Having decided that the plan seemed reasonable, they marched on for Elfheim.

* * *

"Ah'll level with ya, Lizzy," Applejack said as she handed her another empty basket. It was weeding day at Sweet Apple Acres and Rainbow Dash, Personal Trainer to the Fiend of Earth (ret'd), had decided this was a perfect way for Lizzy to get some additional fresh air and good exercise.

"I expect you would," Lizzy said, yanking up a dandelion. "I am told you are the Element of Honesty, so such an action would match your nature."

"Welllll," Applejack floundered, before recovering and continuing on. "Yeah. Ah say it's a good thing you're here to help on the farm today. Have ya given any thought to how you're gonna be, ya know, a useful member of society?"

"I am not a member of your society," Lizzy said shortly.

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Shucks, we got donkeys, zebras, dragons, even the occasional griffin around here. A human like you'd fit in perfectly okay for however long you end up stayin' with us. Just gotta figure out what you can do in your life, both here and back in your world."

"I believe you are taking the concept of the 'cutie mark' for granted," Lizzy told her. "I am already two thousand years old, and _I am not a horse_. No mark will appear on my hip- flank- and determine my fate. The Lich is not _destined_."

"Who cares about cutie marks?" Applejack scoffed. "'sakes, my sister's still waiting for hers, and she's all right. ...most times. Ah'm just saying you could stand to do more than loaf around and clean out all our fridges. You know the Princesses have been paying for all your food, right?"

Lizzy shrugged. "They constructed me. It is their responsibility."

"You're kind of a terrible person, you must know that," Applejack sighed. "Ya never got to murder anybody- ah think- but you did try to end the world. But me and my friends, we look at you and we think you could be, like, a not-so-bad person if you put some effort into it. You're really smart and good at ancient legends and stuff. If you learned to be nicer, you could be some kinda professor back in the human world."

Lizzy put down her fistful of ragweed and stared at the pony. "Are you trying to... turn me?"

Applejack shrugged. "We find that people tend to come round when you just have a nice friendly respectful talk with 'em. Dragons, diamond dogs, Discord... Folks are just folks, in the end."

"And that's why I'm pulling weeds with you, to be preached at and made to 'come around'," Lizzy sighed.

"No, you're workin' up a sweat here because if you grow a third chin Rainbow Dash is gonna die laughing," Applejack shot back. "The conversation's just a bonus. We can talk about somethin' else if you wanna."

"Explain friendship, then," Lizzy said. "I have not had friends myself, but I have observed the friendships of others in my world of origin. It is immediately obvious that the properties of friendship differ markedly between there and here- in my two thousand years of existence I have never been more frightened than when I witnessed the magics your sovereigns were capable of. It is explained to me that friendship is one of the main drivers behind those magics, and indeed behind your circle of six. This bears analysis. Hence, my first question: can you confirm that 'friendship' is a literal term and not a metaphor for some distinct but related magical or elemental force or collection of forces?"

"Whoa, whoa," Applejack said. "Hold up a moment. Can ya explain that in normal words? You were saying you were lonely, and then you started throwing the dictionary at me. Ah feel like ah'm back in readin' class all over again..."

"Is magical friendship the same as actual friendship," Lizzy said flatly.

"Ohhhh! Well, why didn't ya say so in the first place?"

This might take a while, Lizzy thought.

* * *

A sign hung on the locked door of the Golden Oak Library: "INVENTORY PROCESSING IS COMPLETE. Circulation services will reopen at three this afternoon." Underneath in a dragon-y scrawl: "Great job, Twilight!"

A tired but satisfied Twilight Sparkle was drinking tea with Princess Celestia in the kitchen of their mutual tea supplier, Zecora. "Kitchen" in this case meant a ring of stools around Zecora's gently-bubbling cauldron. Deep in the Everfree Forest wasn't the most appropriate place to worry about furniture or decorum.

Behind them, Spike was chewing intently with his eyes closed, occasionally jotting down a note. As a thanks for all his hard work, Twilight had invited him to come along for tea, and Zecora had taken the opportunity to ask him to taste-test some new candied herb formulae she'd been trying out. He was addressing the task with élan- one didn't get free candy every day, and to be asked one's professional opinion on top of that! His notes were copious.

"So what did you think of the list, Zecora?" Twilight asked. "Floe said there's a few more-advanced spells she didn't know enough about to describe, so there's definitely more spells than you've just read about."

"If this 'white magic' stuff is real / Then there's no hurt it cannot heal," Zecora said in her rich accent.

"But is there any area it doesn't cover as well as others? Broken bones or bleeding?" Princess Celestia asked. "We were hoping to ask you to provide a kit of herbs for the white mage to use to supplement her magic. What gaps can we fill for her, and are there any things that an injured pony could especially need?"

Zecora put a hoof to her chin. "I'll see what I can do for you / Will you want one, or maybe two?"

"Two kits, come to think of it," Twilight said. "I think Satoshi is also trained in healing, so he should get one, too. Good idea, thanks."

Zecora nodded and poured more tea for everypony. It was now time for the important part of the conversation.

She leaned in. "'Flash Sentry' is a name I've heard / Has first love in your heart been stirred?"

Twilight groaned but, to her credit, did not blush. "No. The whole thing was a misunderstanding but well, it's kind of weird being around him now, even if it's not fair to him, and that's probably where the rumors are coming from. I can't believe they've gotten all the way to you, but I'll explain..."

* * *

"_Cutie Mark Crusaders giant-bird groomers yaaaaaaaay!_"

The chocobo jumped. A really loud sound was coming from somewhere below her. She looked down.

Three tiny ponies, each wearing a little cape, were jumping up and down in front of her. She was already so much taller than full-grown ponies like Twilight and her friends, but these ponies were even smaller. The chocobo was amazed!

One pony, the yellow one, had a big red bow in her mane. She showed the chocobo a brush.

"Hello, birdie," she said. "Fluttershy asked us to help groom ya! Ah'm gonna brush you up realll pretty!"

She trotted over to the chocobo's side and started brushing at and cleaning her feathers, but she was so small that she could only reach the chocobo's stomach.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," an orange pony with wings said. "This is the only giant bird I've ever seen. If we get our cutie marks in giant-bird grooming... are we gonna groom only this bird for the rest of our lives?"

The chocobo liked the sound of that.

"Dunno, she's pretty neat," the pony with the brush said.

The third pony, a white one with a little horn on her forehead, held up a little box of beauty supplies. "Pedicuuure!" she sang.

Pedi-what? The chocobo watched as the white pony trimmed and cleaned her claws.

"Kweh!" This was actually very nice. She decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The white pony took out a little brush. "And the last step, a coat of griffin's nail polish..."

Hot pink.

Benefit of the doubt: gone. And so, immediately after, was the chocobo.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders watched her flee up the road back to Fluttershy's cottage at amazing speed.

"Guess pink's not her color," Sweetie Belle sighed.

* * *

The wooden door swung open with an air of great majesty. This was especially impressive seeing as it was the worm-eaten door to a farmer's shed sitting in the middle of a field, half a day's train ride from Ponyville.

A voice boomed from inside. "And for what reason have you come to the Great and Powerful Trix-"

There was a pause.

"Oh, it's you... 'Rarity,' right? What are you doing here?"

"Before I come to that," Rarity said, "what are _you_ doing in this awful little shed?"

Trixie sighed and softened her haughty demeanor. She at least had learned to show a little humility around Twilight Sparkle and her friends. "It's the life of the traveling performer. There is one more week before Trixie's next engagement, and Trixie's elegant touring wagon has broken an axle. This shed was the cheapest place to rent in this town, so I have to bide my time here until the wagon comes back from the shop. At least... at least I can practice my amazing magic here in peace and quiet."

She pulled off her star-spangled wizard's hat and shook some dust and cobwebs off it. "So what brings you to Trixie, again?"

"I need information about traditional magicians' attire for a new project of mine," Rarity told her. "You're one of the few ponies I've ever seen who still wears a cape and pointy hat. If you'd give me a few minutes of your time, I'll just make a few sketches and be on my way. Although, well, is there anything you need? It can't be easy staying all the way out here."

She eyed Trixie's cape. "Oh, my! Listen to me going on about your life problems without noticing what's right in front of me. Your clothing is in positively _horrific_ condition! Look at that giant rip, what a tragedy! You can't perform looking like this- I absolutely must repair it for you!"

"But-"

Rarity shouldered her way into the shed. "Nonsense, Trixie, it's the least I can do. You can't look Great and Powerful with your clothes in tatters, so please accept the help of someone who is Great and Fabulous."

Trixie looked dubious.

"I also brought cupcakes," Rarity added. "What kind of guest would I be otherwise?"

"...well, all right."

There was no stopping the Element of Generosity when there was tailoring in the offing. Trixie found herself plopped down on a stool in a corner while Rarity sewed and darned away, pausing every now and then to jot down a measurement or note.

"How _have_ you been, Trixie?" Rarity asked as she stitched a new, thicker hem on the edge of the cape. "We've mostly let bygones be bygones, no? But we don't see very much of you these days. Is the touring going well?"

Trixie let herself loosen up a little. Her rival Twilight wasn't here, after all, so there was no need to prove herself, and also this cupcake was quite nice. "Business has been slow lately, to be honest. I've lined up an excellent gig in Manehattan next week, which will be my third time there-" Rarity ooh'ed appreciatively- "but that means I have to slow down and save up my bits for the trip first. Take it from Trixie, Manehattan is a great place to make money, but you have to pay for your hotel room and some expensive meals even before opening night."

Rarity thanked her for the advice. One of her dreams happened to be doing a fashion show at the Manehattan Barding District. If she could get a good review in the _Times_, she thought, she'd have it made.

"I've got a question about your clothes," she said, polishing the gemstone clasp which held Trixie's cape together. "According to my notes, Star Swirl the Bearded wore a very similar outfit to yours, but his also had crescent moons and little sun-shaped bells on it. Is there an important reason yours doesn't?"

"How do you know about Star Swirl the Bearded and what he wore?" Trixie asked, curious.

"Twilight dressed up as him on Nightmare Night."

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Typical. Well, listen to Trixie: the Moons and Bells are the mark of one who has raised the moon and the sun. In Star Swirl's day, the two Princesses were not yet born so all the most powerful unicorns, including Star Swirl, would work together to bring the day and the night. Since Princesses Celestia and Luna do that now, no magician has the right to wear the Moons and Bells. Although... if they took a few days off, it's certain that the Great and Powerful Trixie would earn the Moons and Bells with no trouble at all!"

"You know a lot about magicians," Rarity said.

Trixie drew herself up. "Of course I must! We true magicians pass on our knowledge from master to apprentice, and this includes the ancient lore of the greatest magicians of history. In a few years' time, no doubt, the Tale of Trixie will be added in too, ohoho!"

Rarity declined to mention that that tale would probably focus on how she'd been corrupted by a cursed alicorn amulet and taken down by the bearer of the Element of Magic.

A few more stitches- and there it was. Rarity handed the freshly-repaired hat and cape back to Trixie.

"Thank you for letting me examine your outfit," she said. "Good luck in Manehattan!"

She excused herself and trotted off, bound for the train station.

Trixie found herself with a small smile on her face which she couldn't quite wipe off. Sometimes, even the Great and Powerful needed some cheering up.


	9. Elves and Dwarves

For the first time in the quest of the Warriors of Light, a meeting occurred in a tavern.

Elvish taverns were clean, well-lighted places, but never quiet. Elves didn't compromise on their drinks, lest it compromise their drinking songs. At the moment, a party from one of the mages' academies downtown was singing about the glories of youth, while a table of grizzled veterans was taking turns on regimental marching songs from the war. Which war, it didn't matter. Elves loved to sing, after all, and their philosophy was that if someone else sang a song you didn't like, the best thing to do was sing your favorite song over them, twice as loud. Most elvish songs were so simple and similar that they'd harmonize anyway, a frequent subject of disdain for dwarfish bards.

The stereotype about elves was that they were tall, thin, long-eared, and had long yellow hair neatly tucked under pointy green hats. Floe had never imagined, however, that every single elf in the tavern would fit this stereotype perfectly. Well, perhaps it was only because it was a tavern in the royal capital, apparently catering to old soldiers. Patriotic dress for patriotic drinks, she guessed.

Floe sat at the bar nursing a glass of milk and a bowl of salted peanuts. Her half-dwarfish constitution could handle anything the brewers of Elfland could throw at it, but elfish taverns didn't serve drinks with pinches of gunpowder in them like she had at home. What was the point of non-flammable beverages, she silently groused.

She'd left her beloved warhammer and white mage's robes with the other three Warriors, assembling a ragged-looking ensemble from Sauber and Zest's old pirate outfits instead. With the strategic use of a few pieces of armor peeking out from beneath her cloak, a cracked walking stick, and some conspicuously inconspicuously-hidden small weapons, she was a white mage well-disguised as a bounty hunter poorly-disguised as a common traveler. What fun, she thought.

Sitting in a sea of pointy-eared green-hatted flaxen-haired elfin carousers, however, was not her idea of fun. While one of the joys in life as described by her mother was annoying an elf just to see the prissy frustrated look on his or her face, she had a low profile to keep.

Her two targets were sitting at a table off in the corner, just in sight of her spot at the bar.

She drank some milk. Nothing was happening yet; the two seemed merely to be playing some sort of board game.

An elf in farmer's dress approached and sat down with them, joining the game. Noting this briefly, Floe turned to address her peanuts. All she had to do was follow them when they left, so she didn't need to keep watching them so closely.

"Pastries?" she asked a passing barmaid.

"Five gil will buy you a slice of cobbler, miss," the elf told her, with a level of cheer which she found just short of suspicious. "Baked this afternoon."

"One, please,' Floe decided, paying her.

Who'd call this a night out on the town, she thought to herself. Not a single person was dancing on the floor, let alone on the tables, the peanuts were insufficiently salty, green was an awful color for barstools, and where were the gunpowder shakers for each table? Might as well just give up and have a meal instead of ordering drinks. She knew that cobbler was going to be too sweet, though.

Floe would cheerfully acknowledge that she was being petty, but petty complaints were part of the fun of visiting Elfland. When she next saw her mother, hopefully after defeating Chaos, they'd probably spend an entire afternoon just making fun of the quality of Elfheimer nightlife, and an afternoon well-spent that'd be.

The food came and Floe tipped the barmaid an extra gil, then tucked in. Peach filling- a not unwelcome change from the apple-filled desserts she'd usually get from the ponies.

She was considering ordering a second slice- a detail she'd omit with her mother- when she noticed movement in the corner of her eye. Her two targets were leaving with the elvish 'farmer'. She downed the rest of her milk and left as well.

* * *

Stalking targets through the streets of Elfheim was far too easy. It was nearing midnight and the streets were broad, clean, well-lit, and nearly empty, and elvish architects had yet to discover the concept of an alley.

There was no way to follow them without being noticeable about it, so she decided just to own the situation and walk about two blocks behind them with a calm and steady pace. If she looked purposeful about it, the people of Elfheim would be less likely to ask.

Zest, Sauber, and their friend stopped at the front door of a row house. The windows were dark. The door opened and closed and the three of them disappeared inside.

It was at this point that Floe noticed the assassin on the roof. He or she was wearing a heavy cloak, but the dangling fabric wasn't enough to hide the basic body shape: emaciated torso and long gangly limbs.

Dark elf! Floe tried hard not to act like she'd noticed. Regular elves she could get along with in a mutually annoying kind of way, but there was no dealing with dark elves. One step up from goblins and a dwarf-sized step it was indeed, her mother would say.

She'd learned not to voice such things around the ponies, though, as she'd learned a new word from them in response to previous remarks: 'racism.' Apparently it was a bad thing, but it didn't seem entirely avoidable in a world with dozens of sentient species, many of which were at war with each other. Perhaps that necessity that would change if things were less violent. In a way, her mission could help this along and her descendants would both understand what this 'racism' thing was and how not to do it.

No more thinking about dark elves in general; it was time to concentrate on this one assassin. She couldn't act first; her cover as a bounty hunter meant that she could only interfere, not instigate. That didn't mean she couldn't get ready, though. She tightened her grip on her walking stick. As someone trained in the art of staff-wielding, even something like this could be a weapon. She pretended to ignore the dark elf as it jumped off the roof and snuck through the door.

No noises yet. She ambled to the door and peeked inside. The weak light of a candle was glowing on the walls, reflected from some back room. The dark elf's shadow crept along the wall.

Floe waited.

The shadow froze as the dark elf tried to scope out the back room, then flashed out of sight. There was the sound of falling furniture and metal against metal.

Floe rushed into the back, a dining room, to see the bleeding farmer slumped against the wall and the dark elf engaged in a knife fight with Sauber. She swung her walking stick- at Zest. Best to keep up appearances. Zest obligingly fell back, feigning a leg injury.

That gave her an opening to address Sauber instead, and she leapt at the thief. Such a shame it was, then, that the dark elf happened to be in the way. Completely unforeseen. She and the assassin ended up in a tangle of limbs on the floor. Zest grabbed a frying pan off a wall rack while they were still struggling to separate, and one good swing to the head knocked the dark elf unconscious with a very satisfying bong.

Floe picked herself up and knelt over the downed dark elf, the butt end of her walking stick held over its head. She gave Sauber a questioning look.

"We need this one alive," he told her. "The royal partisans haven't yet had a chance to interrogate a dark elf agent."

Floe held up the dark elf's cloak, ready to tear strips off. "Tie it up?" she asked.

Sauber glanced at the dark elf. "'Her'. And yes, but I'll do it. You should make yourself scarce before she wakes up if you want to maintain your cover."

Floe nodded, then elbowed him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. "Verisimilitude," she said. "A struggle before my being driven off."

"Yes... good thinking... thank you," Sauber wheezed.

Floe then snapped her walking staff over her knee and passed the two halves to Zest before leaving the room, carrying the farmer with her to render some first aid.

Zest noted with some amusement that of the two mercenaries, she'd chosen to hit the elf. He put the broken staff in a place where the dark elf would be able to see it then helped Sauber tie her to one of the dining room chairs. All that was left to do was dip a mug in a water jar and upend it over the dark elf's head.

The assassin woke with a gasp.

"A few-" Sauber paused to catch his breath- "questions for you."

* * *

The elvish archivist frowned. "The lost city of Rulye? We haven't had an inquiry about that in some time. Well, what do you want to know about it? There are several different volumes containing information about Rulye, so I'd like to know which ones to fetch."

"Not so lost after all," Daewoo laughed, "if you've got so much information."

"Lost Rulye beneath the sea..." the archivist sniffed, "that name does not in this case imply that all knowledge of the city or its location is destroyed, merely that it is no longer inhabitable by those who breathe air. In fact, an expedition is dispatched from Elfland every few decades to inspect the ruins and at last report, it seems that there is a well-established merperson settlement in and around Rulye. Perhaps you'd already know this if you were better-prepared. Again, tell me what you're asking for."

"Maps and history," Satoshi said decisively.

"Finally. Wait a moment, then," the archivist said, and disappeared into the long rows of bookshelves behind the service counter.

"A bit snippy, that one," Daewoo remarked. "Is that the elven attitude?"

"More likely it's due to his being on the night shift," Sabin explained. "It's almost midnight, and who'd want to work? He'd have been happier if no one came to his counter to ask for information."

"Well, at least you understand," the elf said as he returned with a basket of books and papers. "It's one of the drawbacks of having an always-open library. They speak of public services, but what about those who provide the services? I'm counting the hours until I get put back on a day shift."

He plopped the basket down on the counter. "Will you be taking these items outside the library? No? Good, no stamping required. Happy research."

The two mages and their monastic comrade spread the materials out over a table and started working. While Sabin had to content himself with only going through the motions, Daewoo and Satoshi knew what they were doing. The life of a professional mage already required constant study and research, and so this task was quite familiar to them. Sabin, having trained his body over his mind, eventually ended up taking dictation for notes.

Rulye, they found, was in the north near a small settlement now known as Onrac. Its sinking had been caused by forces unknown, but this had happened about four thousand years ago, before the existence of Chaos and his time loop. That meant they didn't have to care why.

Millennia spent beneath the sea had resulted in two different environments in Rulye as best as the elvish archaeologists could tell. One was a morass of submerged shattered floors and walls inhabited by sea life and merfolk. The other... a cave-like maze of half-flooded chambers and corridors radiating from an old shrine at the center of the city. Local merfolk contacted by the elves had recounted legends of a terrible monster sleeping somewhere in the shrine.

"I'll wager a hundred gil I know where we have to go," Sabin said.

"No bet," Satoshi retorted. "That shrine? The Kraken is certainly there. I must wonder, though: how are we going to breathe underwater?"

The librarian came over. "Pardon me, sirs," he said. "I have found an additional book for you."

Satoshi frowned. The cover read 'Elvish Journal of Literary Criticism Volume MMMCCLII'.

The librarian winked and walked away before he could complain about the irrelevant book.

"Huh," Daewoo said.

Sabin, however, noticed a fat envelope had been slipped beneath the front cover. He opened it and pulled out a sheaf of papers. "Floe's handwriting! It's some kind of report. I suppose the librarian is some kind of partisan agent."

"Why is everyone in this city involved in espionage?" Daewoo complained.

After reading through what Floe had written, Satoshi had more to complain about. "That silly woman! How far will she go to annoy the elves?"

* * *

A column of cloaked dark elves marched out of Elfheim under the cover of night, heading for a rendezvous with a wagon train. Two elves and one human, all wearing manacles, were being made to travel surrounded in the center of the formation. A half-dwarf walked in the rear next to the dark elf leader.

"You mentioned a reward?" Floe said.

"Yes," the dark elf said. "There is a ten thousand gil bounty on Zest and Sauber from our king. You will get it from his hands."

He leaned over. "I wonder if you are thinking about a bonus, since you captured an extra elf agent? We dark elves know how the world works, and we know that bounty hunters and mercenaries must always be paid. But... if you get a bonus, only the king decides how much it will be. No haggling."

"I understand," Floe said. "Ten thousand is reasonable."

"And may you choke on those ten thousand gil, witch," Sauber growled from ahead, shaking his manacled fists. A dark elf shot him a warning glance and he was quiet.

"Bounty hunter," Floe corrected him primly.

"Also, thank you for rescuing one of our agents," the dark elf said, "The king could reward you for that, too."

"Could be worse," Floe said agreeably.

They continued on their march, nobody aware that Floe had secreted a vial of paint in the heel of her boot, leaving a tell-tale trail of small green dots.

* * *

Armed with Floe's knowledge, the Warriors of Light split up.

Included in Floe's envelope were the results of the interrogation of the dark elf assassin. Sabin took the whole thing and walked back over to the librarian as the two mages rushed out the door.

"We must go," he lied smoothly. "We forgot to book an inn room. Before I leave... we found some papers in one of the books belonging to whomever last read it. You'll know best what to do with them."

He handed them over, winked at the librarian, and strolled out.

The librarian snuck a peek at the report and gulped. In addition to King Astos's location, the papers lay out in fine detail all the dark elf safehouses and patrol routes in Elfheim city. The resistance would need to be told immediately.

* * *

A few blocks away, Daewoo arrived at the inn room which they had actually booked. He dug under the bed for Floe's clothing. As he struggled to pick up her hammer, he grumbled to himself about crazy half-dwarves.

* * *

Satoshi, as the unofficial party leader, got the hardest job. He ambled past the Thieves' Guild. As Sauber had mentioned, it was closed. The dark elves suspected (rightly) that the entire guild membership was royalist sympathizers but didn't yet have enough power to just walk in and confront them. Spies, counter-spies, and assassination were the rules of the game instead.

A cloaked figure leaned against an alley entrance across the street from the guild. Dark elf. He stepped out.

"Inspection," he declared. Satoshi obligingly stopped for him.

The dark elf made to pat him down then paused and scowled suspiciously. "What are those papers you're holding?"

"Yesterday's newspaper," Satoshi answered.

"I'm taking it."

"What? I paid five gil for this, and I'm only halfway through the crossword!"

The dark elf drew a dagger. "Don't make me use this, tourist."

Satoshi grumbled. "See if I ever visit Elfland again." He handed the newspaper over, and the dark elf rifled through it. Finding nothing interesting- and several (deliberate) spelling errors in the crossword- he snorted in disgust, crumpled it up, and waved Satoshi on.

Perfect execution- he'd needed a few minutes to buy the newspaper and scribble in the crossword, but it had gotten him past the patrol without being closely searched.

One of the side streets next to the guild building, big enough to have regular traffic, was under guild control. Rooftop sentries from both sides watched as Satoshi turned to go that way.

A thief leaned against the wall. Satoshi winked.

"You must be new to Elfheim indeed, stranger, to be walking past here," the thief said. "While we don't rob fellow elves, you, good sir, are fair game. Tell me why I shouldn't waylay you now."

Sauber had told Satoshi the password beforehand. "Wild rose," Satoshi muttered.

"Not good enough!" the thief said, and clamped an ether-soaked rag over his face, pinning him down while he tried to struggle. A few seconds later, the ether had knocked him unconscious. She pawed through his pockets, smiled evilly, and dragged him into the guild back entrance...

A bucket of water over the head woke Satoshi. He found himself sitting at a table, surrounded by elves.

"Takes bravery to do what you just did," the thief he'd met said. "Well, you know the password, and now you're in our base. Convince us you're not in the pay of the dark elves."

"I am your ally. I am one of the four prophecied Warriors of Light," Satoshi told her. "You will probably have found my Crystal tucked in my belt. Please return it."

A disturbingly complete pile of personal possessions was dumped on the table in front of him. He picked up the crystal and let it glow in his palm.

The thieves murmured.

"See the light of the crystal! I bring greetings from Zest and Sauber," Satoshi said. "We have discovered the location of King Astos as well as the positions of the dark elves in this city. I could not bring you the written report due to all the guards outside but it is in the hands of your agent at the Royal Academy Free Library. You will probably receive it soon. King Astos's location... there is a castle northwest of Elfland where Astos is residing. Zest and Sauber are infiltrating that castle along with your agent 'Fingolfin' and one of my associates. They estimate they will arrive by noon- they will be traveling by wagon."

One of the elves had a beard- probably the leader, Satoshi decided, especially given the way he was dressed. He looked him in the eyes. "One thing I have to tell you is that you need not fight Astos. We the Warriors of Light will see to him. Instead, in that time you should make cause an uprising in Elfheim and defeat the dark elves here. We require aid in one thing, though."

"Hold, Warrior of Light, if Warrior you be." the bearded elf said. Satoshi had guessed right. "May I touch the Crystal?"

Satoshi held it out, and the elf closed his eyes and prodded it with one finger. The glow from the crystal reflected off his face. He stiffened.

"The true Crystal," he intoned slowly. "The true Light. Warriors of Light indeed. Behold, the Thieves' Guild stands ready to aid you. What do you require?"

Satoshi smiled. "We must catch up to our allies, and that requires transportation. We must ask you to steal three chocobos from your royal stables."

"Four," the bearded elf declared. "You will not fight alone. Agent Luthien, whom you have already... met... will accompany you. If we can retake Elfheim as you say, however, then we can hardly spare more."

The she-elf who had robbed Satoshi bowed slightly.

Satoshi nodded. "Very well. Let's be about it, then."

"Yes," the elf said. "We must start immediately. However, a name is needed for this venture. Now, what..."

Satoshi was familiar with the practice of making codenames out of nearby objects. He spotted an interesting lump of mineral attached to a plaque on the wall, the spoils of some great caper. "Well, what's that called, sir?"

"As good a name as any," the elf decided. "Commence Operation Carbonite!"


End file.
